6 Steps to Respond Calmly to Catastrophic Thoughts About Your Child’s Future
Here’s a thought pattern that used to make me nuts (and I haven’t completely conquered it yet): ‘Zero to disaster in 60 seconds!
Here’s how it goes….
My 16-year old son has missed two history assignments this week… He’ll start falling behind and fail a test. Then he’ll stop working in other classes, fail multiple courses, he won’t graduate high school (forget about college!), start using drugs, and end up living on the street. Zero to disaster in 60 seconds.
Yes, it’s overly dramatic. But it illustrates how something small can trigger your fears and have you projecting way too far into the future… especially when the event is outside of what you consider normal for your child.
If you think about it, most of the awful things you imagine don’t happen. Why do you do it? This worry, this catastrophizing, takes up mental and emotional space and makes you crazy. It also makes your kids crazy!
In my own life, there were times when my fears about my child’s future had me depressed and anxious. I jumped in to micromanage situations that were not mine to fix. It sure made me feel better to be doing something, but didn’t improve the situation. In…
