The little boy was about 2 1/2 years old. He was "waiting" with his mother and older brother while his dad had surgery. Like most two-year old children, he had lots of extra energy and nothing to do with it in this waiting room. So, he got down on the floor and started crawling under chairs. His mom grabbed him by one arm, pulled him up, sat him in a chair and instructed him to "sit still." I felt for her -- she complained out loud of being tired after working a late shift and then getting only 2 hours sleep before having to get up to have her husband at the hospital. But, I felt even more for the 2 year old.
EMPATHY was all that was needed. The mother would have saved herself much frustration if she had understood ahead of time that two-year olds need things to entertain them and then brought some toys along. Two year olds don't just "sit still" because we want them to do so! Empathy involves understanding others and their feelings. If we are empathic, we usually adjust our own behavior in appropriate ways to someone else's needs or emotions. I tried to show empathy to both the mom and her little boy by what I did next.
I looked around the waiting room and spotted a book. When the little boy was allowed to get down from the chair, I invited him to read a book I found in the waiting room. Then we played a tickle game. After that, he went and spent some time on his mother's lap. Then she suggested they go to the gift shop and buy a toy. The 2 1/2 year old came back with a toy car which he and his older brother played with for the next 30 minutes. This simple gesture of understanding his feelings and then providing a toy for play helped all of them have a much better day.
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