Yesterday was a rough day. Both of our kids were intensely intense.
And my wife and I were getting pretty fed up.
It wasn’t that they were doing anything different than they would normally. Or, that their behavior was that off the mark from the usual.
It was just that the combination, and the timing, of everything that happened was just way, way, too much.
My wife and I do our best not to yell. But yesterday, we were in rare form. For some reason, everything that was going on was getting on our nerves. And, we weren’t in the right frame of mind to address it appropriately. Finally, we both signaled to each other that we had to chill; nothing good would be accomplished by our continued frustration.
It is important, in both our personal and professional lives that we make sure that we understand when it is time for us to walk away and regroup. Sometimes, whether it be because of the situation itself, or any number of aspects of the situation that have cropped up, we aren’t as capable of problem-solving or ideating as we might be otherwise.
In these cases, our best option is to stop, walk away to something else, and come back later.
Too often, we trap ourselves in believing that everything we come across needs to be addressed in the order it was received. Maybe it is due to our linear nature and lives, maybe it is due to something else entirely. Regardless, we must become comfortable taking the time to chill, when we need it.
When we come back to a problem refreshed, we still may not have potential solutions, but at least we have the energy to approach it fully. Otherwise, we run the risk of running ourselves out of gas, or, running a red light, so to speak, and deciding without the proper data.
Today, things are much calmer. While part of that is just the way things are, another part of it is that we’re rested and ready to be the parents we know we can be.