Out to eat...
One of my favorite books on parenting, "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee" by Dr. Wendy Mogel, gives a little bit of insight into some of the anxiety I experience when I am in a restaurant with my kids. When someone starts to act up, complain, do something I just really don't want them to do, I often think to myself "why can't you just be like (that random kid who is somehow behaving over there)!" And then, "what am I doing wrong?? This mom over there . . ." and the comparing begins. Here is one of my favorite parts of Dr. Mogel's book, addressing what is "normal" in children: "It helps to know that the psychiatric definition of “normal” is quite broad. In a landmark study of temperament, researchers Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas found a wide range of normal variations in children’s natures that were obvious even in infancy. Some of the attributes they studied included: Emotional intensity: some babies rarely whimper...