The punches didn't come out of nowhere, of course; the mother
felt that she was rudely approached by the
other woman, who'd asked her to quiet her screaming child in the store and then told the mother to «go to hell» after
receiving a
negative response, and thus, the mother transitioned from «angry mom of screaming toddler» to «violent mom of screaming toddler» as she threw punches in the parking lot.
The
other nine
received sessions in motivational skills training, a kind of self - talk that involves «reframing»
negative feelings — like how hot it is — into positive ones.
Spurred by recent debate over the possible unintended
negative consequences of such awards on young children, I asked my son how he
felt about not
receiving an award for honesty or one of the
other values again this year.