On a recent trip to the park, I was talking to a mother of two boys and she called them and told them that they had 5 minutes left to play before they were to go.
Her one son, probably around 3 or so, came up to her and whispered something to her, and she said, “Alright, tell me why.” He whispered something else and she said, “I can agree with that. You have 10 more minutes to play instead.”
I inquired about what had just taken place and she shared with me that she had just been to a homeschool conference where they taught her some new techniques to use with her boys.
I may be a 50-year-old momma, but you are never too old to learn new things, so I said teach me your ways.
Her son had come up and respectfully said that he wanted to disagree appropriately with her about only having 5 minutes left to play. She replied, “Tell me why,” and he went on to explain that he was playing with these new boys (my sons) and they were having so much fun that he wanted 5 extra minutes to play. She agreed.
It was an amazing exchange, no raised voices, no yelling; it was beautiful.
She explained to me that teaching her kids how to disagree appropriately was important to her. She knows they won’t agree with people on everything, but giving them this tool will help them as they get older.
Can I get an amen?!
This was life-changing for me. We teach our kids so many other things of importance. Disagreeing appropriately should be right up there with please and thank you.
So thank you, new friend, for your wisdom at the park. You are never too old to learn and you taught me a valuable lesson that I’m passing on to my boys about disagreeing appropriately.
