27 February 2021 — Trusting Ourselves

Today, I was sitting on a wall at Bristol Harbourside with many other people enjoying the view and the sun. Sitting next to me on the wall, was a father with his young child who was being very demanding and throwing tantrums when he couldn’t get his way. I really admired the father and the way in which he dealt with his son and I did not perceive the child to be any worse or better than any other child. In my experience that is how all children behave at tines.

When I got up to go I smiled sympathetically at the Father and remarked that bringing up children wasn’t easy at which the father went on the defensive saying how tired his son was.

He automatically assumed that I was judging him and his son, when I was full of admiration for the way in which he was handling the situation. I came away feeling how sad it was that the father was not able to trust that the way in which he was handling the situation was the best possible way. I also came away regretting that in the brief moment of our verbal exchange I wasn’t able to impart how well I thought he was coping with the situation.

The Point of Power was not the father’s in the moment simply because he was feeling that he ‘ought to be’ handling the situation with his son and felt that people were judging him. Giving our ‘Point of Power Away In The Moment’ is something we all do from time to time, when, instead of accepting that we ARE DOING THE BEST WE ARE ABLE TO we judge ourselves to be inadequate and feel that other people are judging us. The father was lacking in Self Esteem and I very much regret that I did not to raise his self esteem a little by telling him how much I admired the way in which he was handling the situation, one in which I found myself many, many times in the past.

PONDER POINTS: My first reaction on reading this was…… how I feel I would react in similar circumstances is……. I disagree with what I have read because …