In my behavioral analysis class we talked about the principle of
"good enough" as it applies to expectations during a learning curve. For example, a student has been asked to sit at his desk for 15 minutes every time he is in his science class, instead of wandering the room, getting up to get a drink, etc. Each day of the week he is able to sit between 13 and 14 minutes. Am I, as a teacher, going to white knuckle it until he reaches the 15 minute goal perfectly, even if I have seen major improvement? Probably not. So easy to talk about in an assignment, theoretically. But in real life? Away from the lab?
For myself, and for my children especially, I sometimes struggle with the learning curve idea.
They have lived in this house for years now.
They should know how things are done here.
The expectations.
The system.
MY responses.
There are some black and whites in life that I see, in my mind's eye, running along a straight continuum. But that dreaded learning curve is filled with color that varies from deep intense shades to pastels that sometimes are hard to see.
Finding the soft spot where my job as a mother includes
BOTH holding on AND letting go. How do I hold my arms out just far enough to be helpful, but not so far that the curve doesn't get a chance to bend and form a tall arch?
In this whole process, when do I accept good enough from myself?
