Rinse. Repeat.

I love this phrase. It's often used by adoptive and foster parents to describe the process of consistent parenting or patterns of behavior. Recently, my kids have been doing a lot of rinsing and repeating of stuff we worked on a year ago. I've been doing a lot of rinsing and repeating with staying calm and responding to their needs.

Parenting hurt kids REQUIRES this type of tedium. We go back and forth back and forth until finally the distance (time) between the back and the forth grows bigger and bigger. Sometimes the amount of stamina you have is equal to the amount of success you have.

And your ability to recognize and relish the smallest of successes also is important. Your kids aren't going to turn to you and say look Mom I'm healed! You have to be able to go- ok that rage lasted only 10 minutes vs 30 we are getting somewhere. Rinse. Repeat.
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