Delaying parenting decisions

When our kids make a request and we feel pressured to make an immediate decision, we may rush into a decision that we later regret. This happened to one mom when her 15-year-old son asked if he could go to a sleepover at a friend’s house. She was heading out the door for work so she quickly asked him if the parents were going to be home and if girls would also be there. He told her that the parents would be home and that there would be girls at the sleepover. He assured her that the other parents were ok with it.

In her rush to get to work, she told him he could go. Later on she realized she was completely uncomfortable with allowing her son to go to this sleepover. She called her son to let him know she had changed her mind. As she expected, he was quite upset.

She regretted she had made such a quick decision. In the future she says she will give herself more time to think it through by letting her son know that she’ll get back to him with an answer.

Parents do themselves a big favor by taking time to think through their decisions before reacting.