Sometimes I have a good day with the kids and by the end feel like a really good parent. Bean tends to catastrophize small problems. Tonight he was in tears because of a test in his martial arts class tomorrow. Nothing I said made any difference, he just kept finding something to be miserable about.
Finally, at the point that I usually get snappy and say something harsh, I said, "Bean, it looks like you are trying to find things to make you unhappy, even with all of the good things around you. It's like, if the coffee table were covered in chocolate candies, and there was one small rock, it's like you're picking up that rock and biting it. You keep biting that rock and complaining about how much your teeth hurt. And you could be eating all of that chocolate and feeling good instead."
He started to smile, then to laugh, because it was so absurd. He totally got it, and I think it's the kind of thing we can hold on to. "Hey Bean, stop biting that rock." "Hey Bean, just eat the chocolate, eat the chocolate."
Something I need to remember for myself.
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