The way we react is a choice

IMAGINE a world where your child never had to feel pain. Where other children never called them horrible, hurtful names. Where the evils of the world were not inflicted on them. It’s just not possible.

We want to protect our children from all the hardships and horrors the world sometimes dishes up. When my son shares his stories of trials and tribulations, it feels as though my heart is being knifed.

I would love to take it all away for him, but I can’t.

You can spend a lifetime asking why the bullies behave the way they do. You can ask “why?” of the aggressive drivers and you can lose sleep over the selfish behaviour of some.

Years ago I had been complaining about how angry “someone made me”. The person who was listening to me whinge wisely said this person did not “make” me angry. My reaction was my choice.

It took years of rumination and hearing the same message from different sources until it really, truly started to sink in. I am still working on it. As a parent, I have the privilege of helping a young person navigate through life and so my focus has turned to resilience and how to build it.

I tell my son, there will always be people doing crappy things but we can choose not to let their stuff rub off on us.

We decide we’ll be strong on the inside and then we will have a world with no pain and no horrible, hurtful names.