There is one thing I learned from my years of being a dispatcher:
The little stuff isn’t worth fighting over!
And…
it’s all little stuff!
Seriously, 98% of life…. is all little stuff!
Ok.. I just made up that percentage. But I am going out on a limb to say it’s correct.
Think about it…. Someone ate the last scoop of ice cream from the container? It’s not going to matter next year!
You got in a fender bender? It can be fixed! In 5 years you will most likely have a new car anyways…. Except me… I tend to keep them till they develop a waterfall inside of them.
Your kids are fighting about something… chances are it’s little stuff.
Our job is to find the solutions to these little things so we can make room for the big things in life. And chances are there is a solution to most everything.
I giggle inside when people walk into my bathroom and come out holding my tube of toothpaste. It sports an office medium clasp clip on its end. There is usually a look of questioning on their face as they hold it up…. And I explain…
Oh… we don’t fight about how to squeeze the toothpaste. Everyone in our house is a winner in that department. Once a week I roll up the tube and reclasp it in place…. And there is never an argument about someone not squeezing it correctly.
They usually end up with this light-bulb moment in their eyes as they head back to the bathroom to return the toothpaste to it’s rightful place.
If you look close enough in my house you will see a lot of things… that may not make sense.. till you ask. There is a reason for why I do everything. Ask my husband and he will tell you.
Usually the reason is to save me Time… and Money…
You see, my husband knew when he asked me to marry him that I was a CDO Triple Type ‘A’ kind of gal. And he is often reminded of how beneficial it is for him when he comes home and sees an entire dressing storage area for him set up to help make his mornings and evenings more efficient.
But more importantly, we are saving time in our mornings and evenings. And with all the little tricks we have set up, we have eliminated things that don’t work or bring chaos into our world. Yes, even when we had kids!
Someone doesn’t turn the lights off when they leave a room? In our house, they turned the lights off. Because if the bill was under 100.00 that month??? It meant we all went out to ice cream as a family. And we didn’t have ice cream in the house that much… so it was a treat! Not only that, but we went out to Cold Stone.. where they got to choose and build their own creation. And it was considered DINNER!!!!
You can call me a bad parent. Go ahead.. But my bill was routinely between 60-80.00 most months while my neighbors were in the 200.00! And I feel the need to tell ya all we ate really good all the other days of the month!
I will also admit to spending 16.00 at Lowe’s for a thermostat key lock cover. When your teenager learns how to reprogram the thermostat trust me…. on a 50′ day and you walk in with it being 85′ in your 60 year old home… you make up your money on that cover in the first month! Girl… Put on a sweater!!!
Solutions save money… and time… and effort… and nerves… and hurt feelings.
Imagine a bedtime with no one screaming about how they squeezed the toothpaste the wrong way? And just then you realize that simple little trick that takes you less then 20 seconds a week to do… is totally worth all the peace in your house!
So next time you discover a problem in your midst…. start looking for the solution. Pretty soon you will discover little tips and tricks that transform your world into a calm oasis. (Ok… that might be in Hawaii…. )
Or you can be like some other homes… have you all heard all the fighting that goes on with kids and toothpaste tubes??? It’s brutal!
The Bettencourt's 