Make New Mistakes

Christina Wodtke's personal motto: "Make new mistakes."

Not NO mistakes - that's impossible and you'd drive yourself insane trying. But new ones. Different ones. Evidence that you're learning something.

Yelled at your kid for the same thing you yelled at them for yesterday? Same mistake. Lost your patience during homework again? Same mistake. Said "just five more minutes" of screen time and then let it stretch to thirty... again? Same mistake.

But if you yelled about something completely different, well - progress! You're expanding your repertoire of regrettable moments.

(I'm kidding. Mostly.)

The real point: parenting is a learning loop. You try something, it works or it doesn't, you adjust. The cadence of checking in - "how did that go? what got in our way?" - is what turns random chaos into actual growth.

You're going to screw up. That's not the question. The question is whether you're screwing up in new and interesting ways, or just stuck on repeat.