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Betsy Brown Braun

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Lousy Local Conditions

by Betsy Brown Braun on May 1, 2010, under Behavior, Character traits, Communication, Discipline, Environmental influences, Expectations, Parenting

While I cannot take credit for inventing the expression lousy local conditions, I use it all the time. It’s just so right-on-the-button.

Lousy local conditions refers to those times when a child’s less than perfect behaviors are magnified or even created by the conditions of his environment. The child who has missed a nap or a meal, who went to sleep late or woke up too early, who has been dragged on too many errands, who has attended one birthday party too many, who had a bad day at school, a fight with a friend, will reflect those lousy local conditions in his behavior, or shall we say, misbehavior. Your two-year-old, for example, isn’t so good at “Don’t touch!” when you visit your grandmother and her coffee-table china tea set. Your seven year old is not likely to treat his sibling with kindness when his best friend excluded him at recess.  The child’s environment sabotages his ability to behave in the way you expect.

When your child has an uncharacteristic tantrum or meltdown, when he is unusually uncooperative or just plain icky, it can easily be the result of lousy local conditions.  Often taking a guess, laced heavily with empathy, goes a long way with an older child. With the younger child, you may just need to get through it and plan better next time.

Anticipating your child’s thresholds and breaking points regardless of his age, will certainly help in avoiding meltdowns, tantrums, and icky behavior. Different children have different levels of tolerance for hunger and fatigue, for crowds and new situations, for stimulation of all kinds. Different children are affected different lousy local conditions.

Craft your reasonable expectations for your child around his age, development, and particular temperament. This, coupled with acknowledging the lousy local conditions, will make your days together a little brighter.

: Compassion, Empathy, meltdowns, Misbehavior, Patience, Tantrums
3 Comments

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  1. Janie Orenstein says

    May 6, 2010 at 11:36 pm

    Jessica, Frieda and Bets, My eyes are still wet. The video is so poignant and reflects love, admiration and the ability to express difficult feelings in a simple and compelling manner. Congratulations.
    Bets, right on about music and the arts in general. How significant that some of our happiest childhood hours were spent in the darkened auditoriums of our schools while our classmates presented themselves on stage, either singing, acting or playing an instrument.What a major set-back in American education…. Janie O

  2. Senaida Patella says

    October 15, 2010 at 10:06 am

    I’ve noticed WP will put the newer post after the older post in a particular category. What should you wanted to rearrange this in order that an older post was put in the beginning of a page or if you needed to put an older post in front of an older post?. I made the post ‘sticky’ and it didn’t make any difference. I guess since the post is part of a category and not a particular page. Any ideas…

Trackbacks

  1. Kids in Restaurants, Part 2: Lousy Local Conditions | Betsy Brown Braun says:
    July 22, 2013 at 2:38 am

    […] times will work better than others. It also includes what I fondly call lousy local conditions.( https://betsybrownbraun.com/2010/05/01/lousy-local-conditions-2/)  Lousy Local Conditions refers to those circumstances that actually sabotage a child’s ability […]

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Child development & behavior specialist, best selling author of award winning Just Tell Me What to Say (2008) & You're Not the Boss of Me. (2010)

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