A mom registered for the Positive Parenting class after learning about it at a Family Place booth at a local community event. She was unhappily married but was choosing to stay with her husband for the sake of her 2 young children. She was willing to try to make it work.

In one of the classes, she took part in a discussion on how to strengthen the couple by understanding the individual stress response. She learned that it can take about 30 minutes to return to your ‘thinking brain’ after a stressful moment. This mom had an ‘ah ha’ moment when she applied this knowledge to her marital situation.  She realized that when she and her husband argue, she immediately apologizes afterward but her husband doesn’t respond to her. This had always caused her to harbor more negative feelings toward him.  She now began to realize that he probably didn’t acknowledge her apology because he hadn’t had time to return to his thinking brain. She was holding hard feelings toward him for something he had no control over.  Because of the class she determined to allow him time to calm down before trying to apologize.

Marriage isn’t easy and parenting makes it even more challenging at times.  We all need to work hard at making it better for our families.