Kylee's Fumble

Had an interesting interaction with my Kylee Hope yesterday.

She was outside playing with her brothers and some neighbor boys when all of a sudden she came in through the back door, and walked straight up to her room.

I was sitting on the couch reading a book, and asked her if everything was alright. There was something in her demeanor that told me she was really angry and was trying to hold it all together, but she wasn't stomping, or crying, just seemed a little upset.

She very calmly said,"I am really angry and just need to go to my room and calm down."

After a short bit she came down the stairs and I called her over and asked her if she wanted to talk about it.

She sat down on the couch and began crying. Here is pretty close to what she said:

"I was outside playing football with the boys, and Seth fumbled the ball, so I told him he had to go back to where he started from and he said, no, that he could start from where he fumbled it, and then, I got really mad at him and called him a jerk, and now I feel very remorseful that I called him that name and I did it in front of our friends, and I feel terrible about how I acted." (huge tears falling)

I was speechless. She had done a fabulous job of working out her anger, separating herself and coming full circle to accepting her fault in the situation (her out of control anger) and even felt remorse (her exact words) for her outburst.

I love that her focus was no longer on the action that had made her angry. I have to admit I am guilty of this. How easy is it to try and justify our rage with whatever it was that caused it. "If they hadn't done ____ I wouldn't have ___" Instead, she recognized her actions were not justified and felt compelled to make it right.

I encouraged her to go and tell her brothers and her friends that she was sorry for her outburst. I also encouraged her to tell her brother that when he tries to change the rules in the middle of a game (what 10 year old boy doesn't?) that it frustrates her.

She's a great kids, and it is awesome to see her growing and maturing!

Kristen