One of the realities of family life, relationships, and parenting that doesn’t often get coverage is that things tend to move in cycles. This can be reassuring when we remind ourselves that nothing goes on indefinitely and our children will move out of phases just as they moved into them!
Sometimes, instead of getting all embroiled in the latest crisis–all we have to do is wait it out and soon the wheel has turned and we’ve moved into something else. This is where a healthy dose of detachment and perspective can come in handy. Now, I am not saying that family life need be one crisis after another–instead, I think that things move in cycles and when things get really tough, you can trust that they won’t stay that way.
For example, I always found that when my children’s behavior got really challenging–they started acting out, asserting their independence, or just being downright crabby, that they were on the verge of a developmental leap. A week or two later and they would have taken a big step, learned a new skill, or moved into a new developmental stage–dragging me along with them. It was not necessarily pretty–but that seemed to be the way things worked. Just as I can rest assured that a peaceful lull will be followed by things getting a little more challenging–it is jus the way the cycles seem to go. Personal development cycles, relationship cycles, family cycles. Nothing stays the same for long and if you can just be patient, things will change again.
A healthy family can sustain these cycles–we can ride out both the low points and the highs and, over time, with a little trust and detachment, see that not only are cycles typical–but there is a strange rhyme and reason to them as well!
Also: The Relation Between Moodiness and Boredom