My youngest son woke up with a bloody nose. As he raced to the bathroom he said, “Really, not again!” completely annoyed! We got him all fixed up and snuggled for a bit (I love the snuggles).
Later as we were walking out the door for summer school, he noticed his bike was on our back deck instead of by the side of the house where it usually is. He exclaimed, annoyed, “Why is my bike back there?”
Clearly, my son’s main emotion today was ANNOYED!
On our 8 minute drive to the school I asked him what he was grateful for about today. Under his breath he said, “my bed, our house, my friends…” the usual.
Then I asked him, “Has anyone done anything nice for you the last couple days that you are grateful for?” Again, under his breath, he said, “played with my friends, take care of me…”
I offered a couple more ideas to him, one of them being, “Are you grateful daddy put your bike in the backyard so it wouldn’t get stolen, even if is on the back deck instead of the side of the house?”
Of course he said, “yes.”
Then we talked about how we can be annoyed about the bike or grateful about it. The difference is how we choose to think about the bikes location. If we think it’s wrong or there’s a problem, then we fail to see the blessing it really is.
I then shared a couple more examples, like:
Lets’ say “sister poured you some cereal for breakfast. You can be annoyed she poured the wrong kind or grateful she took the time to serve you.”
How about, “mom asked you to make your bed (like she does every day). You can be annoyed that you have to make it (every day), or grateful you have bed to make (every day).”
Then I dropped him off at school with a smile and “I love you!”
Two hours later I picked him up and the first thing he said was, “Mom, I had a great day today!” Clearly he had thought a little bit about our 8 minute conversation and was trying to be more grateful.
On our 8 minute drive home, he told me about his morning. He said he didn’t like it all, but he did like that he won second place in a game and told me all about the game excitedly.
Then we talked about how not everything is perfect, but we can choose to focus on the good and our brains will give us evidence of what is good. Or we can focus on the negative and our brain will give us evidence of what’s not going good in our lives.
But, WE GET TO CHOOSE, by our thoughts, what we want to see evidence of. Good or not good.
Do I expect him to keep it up all day… Nope! He’s 7 years old, and has a little boy brain. Who knows what will happen in his day. But we planted a positive seed and I’ll help it grow when the right opportunities present themselves.
This is one example of what being a Ninja Mom Coach looks like in my life.
If you’d like help learning to be a Ninja mom coach also, sign up for a FREE 20 minute mini session with me HERE.
Happy mom coaching,
Sharina
PS The bike is still on my back deck and not put away where it really goes, isn’t that funny! lol