By Sarah Chana Radcliffe
You know how it is - sometimes you're just in a funk and you want everyone to stay out of your way.... Everyone has "off days." Sometimes just giving a loved one space is the best thing you can do. Let the grumpy or irritable child or partner just be. This gives time a chance to heal. Weather, internal health conditions and changes, experiences that this loved one has had with others, pressures and deadlines - anything might be creating their personal stress. Show interest, offer help ("You seem a bit down/off..can I help?") and if they don't take you up on that, then stand back and give them some time and privacy.
Everything went wrong that could go wrong and now it's time to start the evening routine....
Everyday stress can cause every day bad moods. All parents have plenty of stress and therefore have every "right" to be chronically unhappy and short-tempered. However, parents who allow their stress to impact their behavior will soon find themselves in a houseful of people who do the same! Children will assume that there is nothing one can do to shift and uplift moods if parents don't show them how it's done. "I've had a hard day. I'm going to have a nice hot shower and a cup of tea before I start making dinner so that I can relax into a great evening with all you guys." Say it and do it.
