Honey, come on, put on your jacket it's cold. I do not want, I am not cold
Surely more than once we have lived this scene or a similar one. An adult who notices that it is cold and a boy or girl who refuses to put on a jacket or any other warm garment. Something that can become a conflict.
It is evident that our desire to shelter the girl is not out of whim, but because we are concerned about her health, that she catches cold and that this has consequences.
Understanding Your Motives to Avoid Conflict
And it is also evident that the girl has her own criteria and that although we are cold, it may be that she is not. Before entering a power struggle, the adult insisting and the girl, refusing, it is worth it try to understand their motives. And from that understanding, act with the necessary empathy to avoid conflict.
Without going into that each person has a unique way of perceiving cold or heat and that not all of us are equally hot or cold. We must be clear that our children are growing up, and that they do not have the experience that we have as adults.
With our best intention, we try to get ahead but it is convenient to let our daughter go through the experience and be the one who asks to put on the jacket if she is cold.
Depending on the age
Obviously, we will not act the same with a very young child as with an older one.
If our daughter is still little, we can make everything like a game. Instead of trying to get him to put the jacket on, we can animate that jacket. Make voices, tickle ... the more imagination, the better. The language of play is the language of childhood.
But if our girl is older, we can explain to her that it is cold, that we have her jacket and that if she feels she needs it, she can ask for it and we will give it to her right away.
It is not a magic recipe since in parenting issues, there are no recipes that are worth. Every boy or girl is unique, just like every family. What works in one case does not have to be valid in another.
But of course, it is a way to avoid more than one conflict in the day to day with our daughters.
More than trying to impose, to settle in that we are adults who know everything, we can leave a margin of movement. We can let them live the experience, without risks to their health, obviously, but to know the meaning of, for example, putting on the jacket. Because the girl is cold, not because the adult is.