The Whole-Brain Child

We don’t want our children to hurt. But we also want them to do
more than simply get through their diɽcult times; we want them
to face their troubles and grow from them. When Amanda
retreated to the left, hiding from all of the painful emotions that
were running through her right brain, she denied an important part
of herself that she needed to acknowledge.
Denial of our emotions isn’t the only danger we face when we
rely too heavily on our left brain. We can also become too literal,
leaving us without a sense of perspective, where we miss the
meaning that comes from putting things in context (a specialty of
the right brain). This is part of what causes your eight-year-old to
become defensive and angry sometimes when you innocently joke
around with her. Remember that the right brain is in charge of
reading nonverbal cues. So especially if she is tired or moody, she
might focus only on your words and miss your playful tone of
voice and the wink that went with it.
Tina recently witnessed a funny example of what can happen
when the literal left brain takes over too much. When her youngest
son turned one, she ordered his cake from a local grocery store.
She requested a “cupcake cake,” which is a group of cupcakes
frosted to look like one big cake. When she placed the order, she
asked the decorator to write her son’s name—J.P.—on the
cupcakes. Unfortunately, when she picked up the cake before the
party, she immediately noticed a problem that demonstrates what
can happen when a person becomes too left-brain literal.