This is a quote from the book for the AA program. I've never actually been a part of the program myself so I'm what the 12 steppers call a dry-drunk. Its been almost 5 years since I'm had a drink but man life makes it really tempting to just pick up a glass...
This quote obviously applies to everyone (using or sober) and yesterday it popped into my head which made me reflect that maybe I over-reacted to a bad choice that was made in my household regarding one of my teenagers. It is so hard to arm yourself with premeditated actions before walking into those kinds of situations and yesterday was a fine example of that. I have to do better when the next opportunity arises. I'm not satisfied with my approach.
I was calm at first when I confronted my child with the issue but soon she shut down and expressed a "what-ever" attitude which set me off so all I wanted to do was get her to react at that point and I started to loose my head. There wasn't a whole lot of honestly going on either might I add. I took things away and I left it alone for a few hours then felt bad the punishments. My husband validated my feelings about the punishment and that's when I decided to sit down and talk about why what she did was a bad choice. The water works turned on and we had a "good talk". The truth came out and an appropriate punishment was put in place. Why couldn't I get this kind of remorseful reaction out the first time so that the lesson could be learned. Did I have to over-react to "wear her down"? Maybe. I'm open for suggestions.
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