I almost did.
Recently, I had a conversation with a middle school parent that really frustrated me.
This person said & did some things that just felt unkind to me at best, and maybe even manipulative & simply inappropriate. Maybe you’ve been there.
I wanted to vent it all over the place.
I wanted to tell people how I felt like this parent had mistreated me.
I wanted to tell that parent all the reasons why their actions were inappropriate.
But I decided to give it 24 hours.
Not a brand new idea, for sure, but a good one.
It gave me time to breathe deep, ask God for real help, and decide the best course of action.
There was a part of me that wanted to turn my back on it, and pretend it didn’t happen… that’s not what I’m talking about. I did end up having a follow up conversation with him – – but I didn’t come away with a fairy-tale-ending. Essentially, we decided that we have pretty different perspectives on his actions. But the emotionally-charged, anger-inflamed things I would have said to him 24 hours earlier stayed in my mouth. And the people who I considered talking to, so I could question this guy’s character, now don’t need a follow-up apology phone call from me.
I will interact differently with this guy in the future, in light of how he handled himself. But I was glad to have taken 24 hours to think, instead of 24 hours of “unhelpful” words I could have spoken!
