A few years ago when I worked as a manager, I read this book and took a class about the above book. It really made sense to me. The basics of the idea is everyone walks around with an imaginary bucket- the good things in life, compliments, etc fill your bucket, the bad things in life, criticisms, etc dip into your bucket. For employees/people to do well in work/life when your imaginary bucket is mostly full. This concept helped our unit in several ways- one if that chronic complainer (which seems like there is one in every job) goes on and on about something- we could politely say- hey- your dipping in my bucket. A little easier to say that your annoying, complaining personality is really getting under my skin and if you don't close your mouth soon I may say something I regret. (not that we would really say that, but we would think it) We also had a board with drops- that coworkers/patients could write something nice about someone- a drop in there bucket. 
Anyway, I was pleased to find the child version of this philosophy and bought/read the book for the boys last week and so far they are all over it- I am not sure how long it will last, but I am going to enjoy every minute it. Here are a few of our conversations from this past week.#1
The boys and I are driving to go shopping and Zach is complaining about going, he's too cold, he's bored, etc. I tell him, "Zach when you keep complaining you are are dipping into my bucket and when you do that it makes me cranky." Zach - silence. 5-10 minutes later, Zach is happy looking around the store, saying nice things, he comes up to me, "mom, am I filling your bucket, now?" Of course, you just made my day!
#2
We are in a store and obvious that I should have had Cale take a nap, Cale is crying about something, I can't really hear him until we get outside, through his crying I hear him say, "I am not a bucket dipper, I just need to cry, I am not a bucket dipper, mom, am I a bucket dipper, I don't want to be a bucket dipper."
# 3
Zach and Cale are bickering in the back seat of the car, I ask the rhetorical question, not expecting an answer, just wanting to distract them from their latest issue, "Boys are you filling or dipping into each other buckets?" Zach says, "Cale is always dipping in my bucket because he doesn't ever stop talking." Eric and I could not stop laughing- Cale does talk ALOT. If he is quiet, he is either sick or sleeping.
No comments:
Post a Comment