If you are wondering where this fabulous looking taco burger is from, you’ll have to click through to find it on my site. It is now on the bar menu of a local restaurant that focuses or burgers. You’ll have to try it for yourself!
This is a rule for parenting, but it’s really a good rule for life too. Whenever you have constructive criticism you are presenting, try and sandwich it with two compliments.
I thought about this tip because we already have had an incident at school. For those of you who know me personally, I have intentionally not brought it up because I don’t want to make a big deal about it, spreading rumors or bringing a bad light on the school. Just know that the school has handled everything very well and things are being resolved. The short of it is there was an incident on the playground where some older kids were targeting and mistreating Abigail. Well, mama bear in me definitely surfaced, but I wanted to handle things the way they should be handled. So, I wrote an email Friday evening, after we found out about the incident. I started the email with praises about how much Abigail is enjoying school. She loves her teachers and everything has been made very exciting for her. Then, I went on to say there was a concerning incident, which I described with a lot of details that my daughter could provide. I made sure to ask tons and tons of questions to Abigail to try and get down to the root of what was really going on. I finished the letter with comments about how I assured Abby that she has a good teacher and principal that are on her team and will work with her to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I again praised the school for all they’ve done so far and how I believed they’d handle this situation well.
That’s probably a big side note on how this relates to parenting. However, it does. In fact, it is the best way to handle conflicts in general. With kids you’ll be needing to address issues with them. It may be issues regarding behavior or even personality quirks. These conversations can be hard on both sides. We don’t want to destroy our child’s self worth in our interaction with them. The sandwich approach is a fabulous way to avoid that. It can be done so simply. It could be something like this: “Kenzie, you are such a sweet girl. I know you have a good heart and are a good friend. Today, I saw you weren’t sharing with your friends that were here. Let’s really work on that next time. You are normally so generous, and I love to see that in you. I know it will be better next time.” A gentle reminder and encouragement before the next playdate is great too. This really is an effective technique for kids…humans…of all ages.
