you know how they (and by they, i mean counselors like me) tell you to count to 10 if you're angry? well, yeah, right.
i don't know about you but the way i look at it is, anything worth getting angry about is worth more than 10.
i had a pretty much genius client once who sneered at my counting-to-ten suggestion and said, "fine. i'll count by tens."
so, anyway, the whole point here is, counting to 10 does pretty much nothing about anger. the only thing it does about anger is give the counselor the satisfaction that she recommended something about anger.
i have been thinking a lot about counting lately, and for lots of reasons. and by lots of reasons, i mean 3 reasons. and by 3 reasons, i mean 3+2 reasons: my daughter and son-in-law are pregnant with triplets. yes, triplets. and that's on top of the 2 not-quite-2 1/2 year olds (twins) that they currently have.
that's a lot of counting.
so, what i did was, yesterday, when i was talking to a 2nd grade kid about counting when she gets angry, i had a sudden brainstorm........i asked her to count by 2s or even 3s instead of counting by 1s. i told her that it takes more thought and concentration to count by multiples than it does to count by ones, and the extra concentration on the counting can help to distract from whatever it is she's angry about. (i presented this to her as if it were proven, scientific fact, and her eyes grew big and wide. bingo! just the reaction i was hoping for!)
so, anyway, the point is.........abby and eli? when you start to feel yourself getting frustrated or angry? instead of yelling at your kids, count them.
that'll take quite awhile and by the time you're done counting, you won't remember what you were mad about in the first place.
really. proven, scientific fact.
