Are we having fun yet?

One lovely autumn day my little brothers and their friends were having a glorious time in our backyard. We had a huge horse chestnut tree out there and they were raking leaves into piles, then running and jumping into them. 

The way I heard the story later, it wasn’t long before they started looking around for more excitement and one of them had a great idea. “Hey, look, I can jump into the leaves from the swing!” Yay! Everyone wanted to try it. Then, someone took it a step further, “Well, I can jump from the fence!” Not to be outdone, “I can jump from the ladder of the treehouse!” “Oh, yeah?” said my youngest brother, “I can jump from the treehouse!”

That’s when I glanced out the window of my upstairs bedroom, just in time to catch a glimpse of my brother flying through the air from way too high up. I raced down the stairs and across the yard. There he was, on his back, perfectly still. I felt helpless as my heart pounded and my mind filled with dire images of dreadful outcomes. 

Slowly, he opened his big brown eyes, took a deep breath, and, with a little catch in his throat, gulped out the words, “That wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be.” 

This dear brother undoubtedly has a legion of guardian angels and moments later was up and playing again. Looking back from the vantage point of many years, I’m struck again by the simple lesson. What seems like a great idea may not turn out the way we hoped and that’s when we can pivot, review and revise our plans. 

REVIEW: “That wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be.” Jumping from the treehouse seemed like a great idea, but having tried it I see my plan had some unexpected flaws. I could have gotten really hurt, but thankfully I didn’t. 

Now here’s the most important part. Will I change my plan, or keep trying the same thing?

REVISE: New plan. Keep having fun in the leaves, but no more leaping out of trees!

It’s autumn again and school’s been in session for a few weeks now for most kids. After last year’s crazy stressful school experience, how is homework going so far at your house? 

Better or worse than you hoped? Even when things don’t work out as well as we hoped, we can:

REVIEW: Take a good close look at what you see happening. Invite your kids to share their thoughts.

REVISE: Consider together what might work better and give it a try. You might suggest to your kids that you try the new plan for a short time as an experiment. It can be easier to try something when we don’t feel trapped into a promise to do it that way forever. 

Here’s to more resilient wins at home and school,

Anne and Calvert