Dr. B – I can’t wait to hear what came of your eco activist coaching gig?
Parent A – First of all, I’m eating less meat.
Dr. B – Guilt can be a powerful force for change.
Parent A – Yes it can. Especially when the source of it lives under the same roof.
Dr. B – Ha. So, what happened with your daughter’s return to school?
Parent A – The coaching idea worked great. She loved it.
Dr. B – Tell me what happened?
Parent A – She appreciated that I understood why she did the cafeteria stunt. And when I said she just needed to improve her approach, she sat up straight and said, “Are you serious, Dad?”.
Dr. B – That’s great. That (nonjudgmental acceptance) was an important thing for her to hear from you.
Parent A – Then she asked me what I thought she should do and I said we should analyze what her goal was and how effective she felt her approach was.
Dr. B – That sounds great.
Parent A – For a thirteen-year-old, she’s given this “no meat” thing a lot of thought.
Dr. B – I can tell how proud you are of her.
Parent A – It was interesting how she was able to think out loud about what she originally wanted to do, which was to stop some behavior she opposed.
Dr. B – The serving of meat in the cafeteria?
Parent A – Yeah. I kept asking her to explain and it finally dawned on her that the school was serving hamburgers because the students wanted them.
Dr. B – How was that insightful?
Parent A – Well Doc, it’s the difference between supply side economics and demand side economics.
Dr. B – Ok. Ok. English please.
Parent A – She realized she needed to convince the students not to eat meat.
Dr. B – And you were not prompting her?
Parent A – Nope. All I did was ask, “who”, “what”, “why”, and “how”.
Dr. B – So, what did she come up with?
Parent A – You mean, what did she and her cell of eco activists concoct?
Dr. B – Yeah. That.
Parent A – Remember how she stopped saying, “meat” and started calling it “cow” when she talked to me?
Dr. B – Yeah, I thought that was very provocative.
Parent A – Provocative and powerful. One of her eco buddies is quite the artist and another is good with Illustrator, so together, with a little financial support for supplies, they blanketed the school with “Don’t eat me” fliers featuring cows with big adorable eyes and …
Dr. B – I get the picture. These kids have great futures ahead of them.
Parent A – As long as they don’t get arrested.
Dr. B – I’m sure she’ll have an answer for that as well.
