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A Holiday for Mom
Taming Your Inner Brat for a Joyful Season By Pauline Wallin, Ph.D.
And gifts? You may have to buy a gift for someone whom you don't particularly like. Your inner brat will fight you on this one. Grumbling all the way makes shopping more of a chore than the fun it could be. Or you may receive a gift that you hate. Unless you take it in stride, your inner brat will pout in protest and ruin your holiday.
What if you're invited to one or more parties? If you don't care for parties, your inner brat will think up all sorts of cynical reasons why you shouldn't go. Even if you do enjoy parties, your inner brat may still interfere. For example, in the midst of a busy gathering, you may feel slighted by people who haven't come over to greet you. Or you may be disappointed by people who said they would come to your party and then didn't show up. Here, your inner brat could smolder with resentment, causing a major rift in your relationships.
Don't make this holiday a free-for-all for your inner brat. Crowds, parking spaces, out-of-stock items and even annoying people are only temporary inconveniences. And just because alcohol and calorie-laden foods are readily available doesn't mean that your inner brat must have what it wants when it wants.