Perspective Is Everything

It was a quiet Saturday afternoon at our house when my husband decided to give my son a haircut - not unusual. What was unusual was the crying about 3 minutes later, and an urgent "honey, please come here immediately". Uh Oh! I couldn't help but worry that my son has somehow been cut. I was certainly not prepared to see my son with a bald stripe down the front, center of his head. Apparently, my husband had forgotten to put the guard on the clippers. "What do I do?" my husband asked above my son's wails. In a flash, I herded my son to the car to go to a haircut place. Not usually known for his dramatics, my son sobbed "MY LIFE IS RUUUUIIIINNNEDD" on the way to the car leaving behind a very guilty daddy.

All was pretty quit on the way, but when we headed into the haircut place, my son put his head down and tried to hide behind me - obviously embarrassed. It was while we were sitting and waiting that I realized what had to be done here. It's really an age-old parental trick. When something happens to your child that you cannot fix, you have just one choice...you have to change their perspective on the situation. My son was called and we both went to the chair. He was unusually unresponsive despite the attempts of the very nice haircutter "Cathy". I explained what happened and Cathy assured my son that she was there to help. Together, Cathy and I started talking about how cool he was going to look with such short hair. Cathy mentioned that all the cool kids these days have closely shaved heads. I could see my son beginning to come around, so I took it further. He had a swim meet the following day and I told him that with less hair, he was sure to swim faster than ever. In just 15 minutes in the haircut chair, I saw my son go from dejected and embarrassed to hyper-happy. He went home and gave his dad a huge hug and a "thank you". The transformation was amazing.

It was also one of life's great life lessons. We can't always change or control a situation. We can choose to be angry or sad or beat our heads against the wall, but why not choose something else? Why not try to change our perspective? My son's new haircut still looks a little strange, but by bringing the positives of it to his attention, his entire world changed. We can do that too - everyday.

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