For years now, my husband and I have been involved with self-development programs. Various roles at various seminars, courses and workshops impeccably improved our lives on both personal and business levels. We are able to better understand ourselves and the world around us, and communicate better with each other, our family, employees, anyone we meet, and most of all- our children. Oh, the sense of pride we had that, by raising them with a different outlook our parents had, they will become such well rounded adults… Until a new kind of dynamic started to happen… First, the older one (who is nine) started analyzing bullies at his school and asking them different questions to get to the bottom of something that he had suspected, as he told me: they lack self-confidence and that is why they are behaving in that way! Then, he would explain the powers of the unconscious mind to his friends, as well as making an argument how having cool stuff doesn’t make you cool, but being honest and understanding others does. The younger one (turning five next month) is very intuitive and aligns with people incredibly; just the other day, he met a girl at the playground, determined she was sad because her uncle passed and shifted her focus by telling her how she should be grateful that she had a great uncle and that now her family (that is alive) should really be everything she cares for). And don’t even get me started on his suggestive language patterns, courtesy of NLP: “Did you say yes for the new toy” where in fact I never even responded to the question. Should I describe how proud we were?!
And then, it happened. Several months ago, I was upset in the morning because I had to make gazillion lunches and snacks, get everyone ready for school, no one was chipping in to help etc. etc. you know the drill. In the middle of my rant, the nine-year-old told me to stop telling myself a story and get over it! (Oh, no you didn’t!) It stopped me in my tracks. I was speechless. And then it was funny. And then I was grateful. That was the sign- it’s paying off! Nevertheless, I accepted the coaching he gave me in the car on the way to school, which made him feel so empowered.
My husband was not spared either: at one instance, the little one annoyed him with his requests to stop by the toy store so much so, that he answered back rather loudly and impatiently. To which the little guy said: “You don’t need to shout, dad. And you need to snap out of that state. I know you’re bigger, but… it’s not OK”! At that moment, I was happy there were no liquid in my mouth to spray it all over the car when I burst into laughter.
These days, our little life coaches continue to give us the run for our money (or should I say, investment) by mirroring our ways with them and calling us out every time we go astray. I am not going to lie- in the beginning it hurt a bit when we were on the receiving end of coaching, but as time goes, we are more and more proud, happy, grateful, and able to laugh. We are also looking forward to more coaching adventures, because that’s ultimately what we wanted- to live fulfilled lives through constantly and “never-endingly” developing ourselves! Kid-development included.
Mariana Polic
Mom Extraordinaire
Check out her blog: Bringing Sexy Back
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