Parenting · 4 min

Fix the fifteen minutes before

Friction usually has a cause slightly earlier than where it shows up. This looks upstream instead.

How to do it

  1. Name the ten minutes of the day that go worst — leaving, homework, bedtime.

  2. Describe what is happening fifteen minutes before that, in detail.

  3. Change one thing in that earlier window: something moved, prepared the night before, or started sooner.

  4. Try it for three days before deciding whether it worked.

Most family friction is a logistics problem wearing an emotional costume.