I've been working on being more diplomatic. Not that I need to, I'm a pretty easygoing person and I have a knack for understanding crazy points of view but I do get annoyed with bad behavior. So, I've developed this mental game where I substitute what people should have done/said with what actually was done/said. I'm doing this partly because I have been overusing my favorite word "jackass" lately when annoyed and partly because it is a great opportunity to teach manners to my children.
The most popular opportunity to choose a good behavior over bad is in traffic. It takes about one second to let someone onto the highway. Is it really, really going to kill you to lose one second out of your day?
Another good example was this weekend when we took our kids to a restaurant (ok, it was a bar that also served food) to watch the world cup final and someone pulled their chair right in front of my less than 5 foot tall child and blocked his view. I was annoyed but before I could say anything my friend ripped the guy a new one. While she got what she wanted, she made everyone a little uncomfortable with her confrontation. A better option would have been to politely speak to the guy and say something like " You probably didn't realize there was a little guy behind you when you moved your chair, would you mind terribly just shifting to the left a bit so he can see? Thanks." Why is everyone so angry all the time?
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