If your reaction is too extreme for the situation, it may be coming from the child inside you
Fraidy asked the kids to put away their game so she could set the table for dinner. She asked nicely and then went to prepare the green beans. But when she came back a few minutes later, they were still playing, acting like their mother hadn’t even spoken.
So she asked again, a little more businesslike, and went back to the stove to check on the potatoes. She was ready now to put the plates out, and so grabbed a few on the way to the table. But when she got there, she found nothing had changed. They were acting as if she hadn’t said a word to them. So now she lost it. “DIDN’T I JUST ASK YOU TO CLEAN UP HERE? IT’S TIME FOR SUPPER!”
The kids look up. What’s wrong with Mommy? they wonder.
The fight-or-flight response is the body’s way of surviving perceived life-or-death emergencies. Fortunately, when it comes to daily family life, there isn’t a large supply of true life-or-death emergencies.
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