Knowing When Enough is Enough
"You're being unreasonable." Something I say way too often thanks to my lovely children. But unreasonable people lurk everywhere. I often wonder, did their parents never tell them they were unreasonable? As a result, their sense of reason continued to get more and more skewed. Or, is reason beyond some people's abilities?
My friend and I started a group of girls under a national organization. We love the group, and the organization has overall been helpful and supportive. My friend and I started off with high expectations and wanting to make all the girls and parents, as well as the organization, happy.
Now we realize our mistake.
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Bill Cosby
You cannot make everybody happy all of the time. And in most cases, it's all you can do to make some people happy some of the time. In the end, you give your best and base your decisions in kindness and move forward.
I won't get into specifics, I've read the headlines about bloggers getting in trouble, but we dealt with a parent that only got more demanding as we got more accommodating. The cycle was never going to end. When we wised up and stopped, the mother panicked. We were her lackeys, and she was losing us. She went up the chain. Thankfully the chain supported us and we have parted ways.
But it taught me a valuable lesson. I only have so much energy in this world, and I need to conserve as much of it as possible for my family and true friends. My children alone use up 75-80% of it. But they are worth it!
This goes back to my original point... you can't reason with unreasonable people. You can try, but it takes an awesome amount of energy and rarely offers results. The more you give, the more the taker will take.
I'm in no way suggesting you give to get. But, we all must realize that giving drains us and we can't do it to our, or our family's, detriment. At some point, like it or not, the rubber band snaps.
My new resolution (well-timed with a new year, but I'd be making it regardless): give wholeheartedly, but stop short of giving past the point of reason.
What's your best technique for dealing with unreasonable demands or unreasonable people?
My friend and I started a group of girls under a national organization. We love the group, and the organization has overall been helpful and supportive. My friend and I started off with high expectations and wanting to make all the girls and parents, as well as the organization, happy.
Now we realize our mistake.
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Bill Cosby
You cannot make everybody happy all of the time. And in most cases, it's all you can do to make some people happy some of the time. In the end, you give your best and base your decisions in kindness and move forward.
I won't get into specifics, I've read the headlines about bloggers getting in trouble, but we dealt with a parent that only got more demanding as we got more accommodating. The cycle was never going to end. When we wised up and stopped, the mother panicked. We were her lackeys, and she was losing us. She went up the chain. Thankfully the chain supported us and we have parted ways.
But it taught me a valuable lesson. I only have so much energy in this world, and I need to conserve as much of it as possible for my family and true friends. My children alone use up 75-80% of it. But they are worth it!
This goes back to my original point... you can't reason with unreasonable people. You can try, but it takes an awesome amount of energy and rarely offers results. The more you give, the more the taker will take.
I'm in no way suggesting you give to get. But, we all must realize that giving drains us and we can't do it to our, or our family's, detriment. At some point, like it or not, the rubber band snaps.
My new resolution (well-timed with a new year, but I'd be making it regardless): give wholeheartedly, but stop short of giving past the point of reason.
What's your best technique for dealing with unreasonable demands or unreasonable people?
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