Are you the sort of parent who weighs all the possibilities before making a decision or are you someone who has a tendency to jump to conclusions before taking in all the facts? I can be a bit impetuous but my experiences as a parent have actually been instrumental in teaching me how to focus and hold off on my conclusions until I at least have some of the facts. While parenting often requires that we make snap judgments and decisions, we can lose credibility and authority with our children if we are doing it too often and not really getting a good grip on what is going on…
I learned when my kids were much younger and really in the throes of the sibling jostling and rivalry stuff that I needed to get all the facts before making a decisions. There is something about siblings—they become masters at trying to make it look like the “other person” is in the wrong. I cannot count the times where if I went with what it appeared had happened, I would have been very far off indeed. For me, focusing on fairness and keeping the emotional level reasonable can help keep me from jumping to conclusions.
The fact is, our kids want us to react in the moment (okay, some of them do and for some of the time)—it is so much more exciting and dramatic and they can manipulate the outcome better if mom or dad flies off the handle. If you can slow yourself down and gather all the facts, you will probably have a more stable reaction and you will save credibility with your kids. Plus, if we take our time to react, we are less likely to say or do something that we will regret and have to backtrack on.