Dear Parents, Caregivers and Children

From memory, yesterday was the first time in the past 7 years that we have had a crisp, clear day for our annual Hard Court Day. It reminded me to take a step back and be thankful for the small wins that come our way at times.

On Monday I spoke to the children about a cooking saga that happened at our house on Sunday evening. I, in my wisdom decided we could have a roast, selling the idea that it is one of the easiest meals to cook "the oven does all the work". 5.30pm arrived and we were ready to pull it together, but suddenly realised we had no mint sauce or jelly (it was a roast lamb). Amy suggested I whip down and pick up the sauce and jelly from the shops, however, I thought I was all over it and said "no, I'll be fine, you go". After giving me a quick run down on how to make gravy, Amy left for the shops. Well, as soon as she left it all started to go pear shaped. The gravy was a disaster and the lamb still had a 'pulse'. Back in the oven goes the lamb and I kick on with the gravy. However, the gravy wasn't thickening up, so I kept adding more flour and more flour and more flour trying to save this gravy and embarrassment. I think I added enough flour to make a cake! Anyway, Amy came home and rescued it all, while I went and had a rescue remedy. 

In short, the message to the children, was at times you need to know when things are going wrong and restart or reset. Often we try and save situations or dig ourselves out of situations, when actually we just end up creating a bigger hole. Being ok with identifying a mistake, restarting and going again is a learning we all need at times. While this was a harmless context, the learning is still the same. Too often I see children and adults alike persist with an idea, view point or action despite seeing where the outcome is clearly going. My advice was, give yourself permission to 'be brave', acknowledge the mistake and start making your way to a positive outcome. This thinking can be applied from contexts as harmless as making gravy, to relational conflict. Accepting errors of judgement or mistakes we make, can be tough. But be brave, take the 'harder right' rather than the 'easier wrong'. 

Warm Regards

Geoff