Sunday, November 8, 2009

Submission Training

I have decided that my son has been the perfect trainer for submission practice.  He can be very difficult right now and very demanding.  Everything within me just wants to yell him down over everything.  I find myself examining my own motives more than his. 

Today, I came home from church at about 2:00 pm.  It had been a long day, and he had not dealt with the leaves in the front yard as he had been instructed.  There were lawnmowers, an electrice cord for a leaf blower, a rake, and a lot of leaves sitting in the front yard when I finally got home.  Usually I would have started yelling at this point.  Today I thought I would find out what he needed.  My need was to have the leaves gone; his was a question mark to me. 

I helped him get through his "I've tried" phase, and we moved on to productive discussing to help him get the work done.  More often than not, my confrontation would have led to escalation and little work.  Because I subordinated my need to have it done already, we were able to communicate and see the task completed. 

My son is a pretty good teacher.  If anyone would like to borrow him for some submission lessons, he is available for rent most any day.

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