After our first session, Dr. R. told me to write down my goals for our next therapy session.
- Get my child to listen to me
- Get my child to be less manipulative
- Instead of whining, she does what she is asked to do
- Learn not to promise things as way for her to do what I ask
- Learn to stop engaging my daughter – explaining only makes it worse
- A Well-behaved child that listens the first with no arguments
After my review of my goals, I might have detected a slight smirky smile as if to say “not asking for much are you”.
Hey, these are my goals, whether I ever accomplish them is another story.
We reviewed them together and came to an understanding, that let’s face it her words, you need to be a “benevolent dictator” and you need stop engaging in discussions.
I acknowledge and know instinctively before I came to therapy that it is almost impossible to have a rational discussion with an irrational person. And children are irrational. Yet, I continue to do this, so every day is going to be struggle to NOT to engage.
This edition is part 3 of Therapy Thursday.
