I’ve started doing a new thing.

I was getting to be a rather grumpy sod I realised. A little bit too short with my kids, a little bit too quick to set a consequence to get the desired reaction, when a patient minute or two would have got the same result with no aggro.

It’s something I’ve done before a few times and know works. Wearing a hairband on my wrist as a reminder to not be so grumpy. It is a wee bit too tight, so I feel it. And I see it all the time. I fiddle with it too and swap it from wrist to wrist.

What it’s really doing is keeping the thought to ‘check yourself, don’t be grumpy’ at the front of my mind, rather than the back, where it only comes forward after the fact.

Simple but effective. Maybe it’ll help you.