Learning Curves 163My child becomes frustrated about things that don’t
involve interactions with me or other people. He
just gets really frustrated with something he’s doing,
like playing PlayStation. Or sometimes he has a de-
layed response to a frustration that happened ear-
lier in the day. What then?
It’s true, there are times when it seems as if there’s noth-
ing to work out because your child’s frustration didn’t in-
volve you or another person. And there are instances in
which a child’s frustration at the moment is a delayed re-
sponse to an earlier frustration, such as something that hap-
pened in school. But your role remains the same: to find out
what’s up and help solve the problem (perhaps with Emer-
gency B today, but with Proactive B tomorrow if the prob-
lem was really quite predictable).
Mother (standing on the front walk to the house):
Charlotte, we’re waiting for you to get in the car
so we can go to the beach.
Charlotte (standing in the front doorway): I’m not
going.
Mother: What? Charlotte, you love the beach.
Charlotte (backing into the house): I said I’m not
going!
Mother (moving toward the front door, and using Plan
A): Charlotte, your brother and father are already