Don’t Dwell On It

Sometimes as parents we tend to dwell on things. Maybe we shouldn’t have yelled like we did and we think about that for a long time – longer than we should. Or maybe, we did something and realized it was a bad example for our kids and now we are worried we have instilled a bad behavior.

The main thing is to fix it and move on. So if we yelled, instead of dwelling on it and thinking about how bad of a parent we are or if our kids is going to resent us, apologize, and move on. If we keep this worry or this anxiousness inside of us for a long period of time, it will eat at us. Then we have a tendancy to repeat it and worry and repeat… the cycle continues.

If we choose to fix it, by apologizing, we can break that cycle. Our brain will remember that apology and when the situation arises, we can take corrective action to prevent it from happening again. Now, like all things, it will take time or multiple attempts. The key thing is the effort to be better. If we can grow 1% better each day we can become a lot better versions of ourselves over the course of a year.

So next time you find yourself criticizing yourself for something, don’t dwell on it. Make amends and move on. Life is too short to be critical of ourselves and we need to be better for our families.