Parenting Thought #4: The question

So I went to a great activity a few Saturdays ago and attended a parenting class.  Although most of the info was stuff I had been taught prior to this day (not saying that I am any good at using it, just that I knew about it!), one question stood out in my mind that she taught us.  It was this.  If a child makes a mistake and comes and tells you about it, instead of getting angry at the child and then trying to fix the problem you ask them one question: Ok, so what are you going to do? Or in other words, ask the child how they are going to fix it.  It doesn't seem like that monumental of a thing but as I thought about it I don't think I had asked that.  So I tried it with H and the look on her face was priceless.  It was kind of a blank stare and then I could see the wheels in her little head turning and she came up with a solution which was what I would have told her anyway.  Then I tried it with G and same thing, he started to think.  Who knew that such a simple question could help my children so much.  H's teacher said that one of the tasks in school is higher level thinking or thinking beyond the story and answering future questions.  I think this new question will help them to think in the future because they have to think of the consequence of their actions and what would yield the best results for everyone.  Try it and see what happens!!