114
The Explosive Child
that I thought I was
supposed to be practicing
writing with you at home, too. But I haven’t
spoken to Mrs.
Andrews lately, so, to tell you the
truth, I’m not exactly clear about what I’m
supposed to be doing at home.
Child: Why don’t you talk to Mrs. Andrews and ask her!
Adult: I’m starting to think that’s a very good idea.
Then you wouldn’t have to do writing you’re not
supposed to be doing—if that’s what she says—
and I’d know you
were getting enough writing
practice. Does that solution work for you?
Child: Yes.
Adult: It works for me, too.
Thanks for talking about
this with me, pal.
It’s true, Plan B isn’t usually this easy, especially early
on. For example, sometimes kids (and even adults) get
pretty heated up with Plan B. As noted above, sometimes
this is because history has taught them that disagree-
ments are always handled using Plan A. It may take a
while (and a lot of Plan B) for the child’s instantaneous
heated reaction to disagreements to subside. But let’s
take a look at what things might look like when there’s
added heat early in the Plan B process (and when a pre-
dictable problem that has
yet to be solved is handled
emergently rather than proactively). Notice that the
steps are the same, but there’s just added heat. Stay the
course.
