Pay Attention to Voles and Children
Voles are small burrowing rodents that look a lot like moles. They burrow underground all day, eating the roots of plants. This is not a great deal for people who are growing vegetable gardens, because the voles eat the roots, and then the plants die.
A mother wrote me and said, “Today I caught my third vole in two days. My neighbor taught me how. I dug into the mounds to find the tunnel and then set the trap. Sometimes you dig into the mound and can't find the tunnel. Sometimes the mound is so small you miss it. Sometimes the mound is old and the vole has moved somewhere else.
Last night one of my lettuces looked bad, and when I pulled it, the roots were gone, so I knew there was another vole digging. I found the tunnel, set the traps, and in the morning, I had caught the vole.
"All this time I thought there was nothing I could do, but I’ve learned that I just have to pay attention. As you say: ‘Be AWARE, and you’ll see what needs to be done’—with voles and with children.”
Pay Attention to Fear and Defending
Mom, way to go. You identified the problem, you learned what to do, you paid attention to the signs of infestation, and you solved the problem. And yes, it works exactly like that with children.
The Parenting Training teaches you the consequences of doing nothing to help your children, and then it teaches you how to watch for early signs of Getting and Protecting Behaviors, and then it teaches you how to get rid of them.
You have to pay attention to infestations of fear and defending, because if you don’t, your children’s roots are eaten up, leaving them emotionally devastated.
The sooner you act, the easier it is. Yes, it takes effort—watching for signs, digging in the dirt, setting traps—but the alternative is that your plants die. In the case of your children that price is VERY high. Your children suffer emotionally, often for a lifetime.
Mom said, “I just have to pay closer attention to my children. I can’t allow ANY whining, or anger, or arguing, or ‘attitude’ in our family, or the results become terrible.”
If this Mom can learn this lesson, so can we all. Get rid of the voles sooner, not later.
