Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Day 57: Practicing the Fine Art of Delegation

A few nights ago Aaron was organizing his Pokemon cards and noted that he had too many of a certain card, and the pile was overstuffing the binder pocket page and causing it to break.

“Looks like you need a Ziploc baggie to put the extra cards in. That way, you can keep them, but you don’t have to have them taking up room in your binder. I’ll grab one from the kitchen for you.“ (Mommy always has a solution.)

“Okay,” replied my sweet boy.

I continued doing whatever-it-is-I-was-doing in his room and then left to get distracted by something else.

It dawned on me the next morning that I never did go get the Ziploc for him. And yes, I actually felt sorry for him, what with having such a useless mom and all.

But wait a minute. Is that really how this should have played out? Wouldn’t it have been much better if I had just said, “Looks like you need a Ziploc baggie…Do you know where they are? Bottom drawer by the dishwasher? Go ahead and get one, sweetie.”

This simple act of delegating would have solved two problems. 1) Aaron would gain more experience in resolving his own issue, and 2) I would not have any reason to beat myself up for forgetting something and letting someone down.

It has always been my habit to see a way to make something better, suggest it, and then offer to do it so that whoever will benefit most will also be inconvenienced the least.

Strangely, that’s how I’ve rolled.

Today I will start making a concentrated effort at delegating for everyone’s own good.

1 comment:

  1. I'm the same way - if I think of it, I obviously have to DO it, right? Right?!

    No. No, I do not. Thanks for the reminder, Lori!

    ReplyDelete