J.D. is going to Florida with her daughter next week. Her daughter is excited about going to the beach but has already adamantly told her mother that she isn’t going into the ocean. When J.D. asked her why, she matter-of-factly replied, “Because I’m afraid of the sharks.”
J.D. suddenly remembered back to her childhood and the pond her family had behind their house. Her dad asked her one day why she didn’t like to go swimming in the pond. J.D. told him that she was afraid of the alligators in the pond. Her dad, without skipping a beat, said that there weren’t any alligators in the pond. J.D. asked him how he could be so sure. He replied, “Because I put up a sign near the pond that says, ‘No Alligators Allowed.’” That appeased J.D., and she swam without fear.
Deciding to try the same psychology on her own daughter, she told her daughter that there weren’t any sharks in the part of the ocean that they were going to. Waiting for the same answer she had so long ago given her own father, she was quickly rewarded when her daughter asked, “How can you be so sure?”
“Because, Sweetie, they put up signs on the beach that say, ‘No Sharks Allowed.’”
Her daughter was not so easily calmed, however, as she looked J.D. straight in the eye and asked, “Can the sharks read the signs?”
J.D. was speechless. She later told me that she couldn’t believe that she had been outsmarted by a four-year old.
