A personal family experience shared by the BYTS Movement’s founder, using the credit name “Grateful.”
I was trying to hold a family council with my wife and children. Our children were being rambunctious, and it was becoming difficult for our meeting to happen.
Remembering BYTS, I called a time-out.
I asked our children to go into the closet under the stairs, leave their “natural selves” there, and come back as their “true selves.”
They went in noisy and rowdy. As each came back out to our living room, my wife and I were amazed. They returned with their arms folded and sat down quickly and quietly, ready for our family meeting.
From that point, we had a productive family council.
A shared idea became a shared reset
For our family, BYTS gave us a familiar way to pause and begin again. The children understood the picture of setting aside the impulses that were getting in the way and choosing a different response.
That moment reminded me how useful a shared understanding can be. It helped us in that situation; it does not mean every child, family, or difficult moment will respond the same way.
The principle behind the moment
Be Your True Self invites us to consider how we want to show up in the role we are fulfilling. In a family conversation, that may mean listening, taking turns, or preparing to participate.
The setting was part of our family’s story. The useful idea to consider is a shared pause and a chance to choose the next response. Families can find their own comfortable, respectful way to do that.
A question to consider
What shared word, picture, or reminder could help your family pause and begin again when a conversation gets difficult?
—Grateful
Illustration represents this family experience; it is not an actual photograph.
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