There's a Person In There

“Big truck!” my daughter yells as she runs toward me in a panic and reaches for me to pick her up. Our walk is interrupted as flatbed trucks roll into our neighborhood for construction on a house nearby. She’s eighteen months old and I want to raise a strong, independent adult, so I try to have her stay on the ground. “It’s OK, sweetie, the truck is far away,” but she's not convinced. Our afternoon walk brings the same reaction as they leave for the day.

I need a different approach. So the following morning, as the trucks roll in again, I crouch next to her, point to the driver and say “Look, there’s a person in there”. She sees the driver, happily waves, and shouts “Hi, truck!”

We should raise our kids this way, to pause and look more closely when something or someone seems scary. But more importantly, I’d like to take every adult across the country and have them do the same.

“We’re all people. And when we’re out of the box and seeing others as people, we have a very basic sense about others – namely that, like ourselves, they have hopes, needs, cares, and fears.” - Arbinger, Leadership & Self Deception