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“I can just about promise you they won’t be doing that at graduation.”
Part of an occasional series about phrases that this therapist finds himself repeating, often.
As a clinician in private practice, one of the phrases that I frequently hear myself saying to parents is “I can just about promise you they won’t be doing that at graduation.” This phrase typically shows up with a parent of a younger child, but sometimes with an early adolescent. But while the age of the child varies, the parental plea is the same, “Please stop my child from doing [fill in the blank with annoying/embarrassing behavior]!”
Momentary parental fears have replaced a longer, developmental view of your child’s behavior.
Children change and grow; behaviors come and go. There may be some things we can do to help a particular behavior exit the developmental stage; there is also a lot that we can do that will make a particular behavior stay around well past its time.
Although let me be clear that there are some exclusions to this developmental view: if your child is having hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, is using “heavy” drugs, or is very isolated from their peers, do take these seriously and seek assistance.
