In a hub airport I encountered a mom with a young son who was still at an age where he accompanied his mother into the women’s room. They were leaving the restroom when the mom noticed the boy was deliberately dragging along a small pile of paper towels with his feet.

She saw no humor in this act. Her face said, “He is clearly just doing this to annoy me.” Accordingly, she yelled at him and demanded that he pick them up and throw them away. He looked back at her defiantly and kicked them around some more “just to annoy her.” Her self-fulfilling prophecy had come true, as they so often do.

At the point when she raised her hand and threatened him with the classic non-question, “Do you want me to give you a spanking?” I broke the tension by stepping in, putting out my hand and offering to throw the paper towels away for him. As the boy handed them to me, I said what I saw, “Looks like you both are having a hard day.”

The mom nodded and, with a little more civility on her part and a little more obedience on his, they headed off to catch their next flight.

If you’ve read our online handbook, SAY WHAT YOU SEE, you know the mother-child interaction didn’t have to escalate like that.

Here’s your turn to practice your SWYS skills and get some direct feedback from me:

What else could you say if you saw your child deliberately dragging a pile of paper towels out of the airport restroom with his or her feet?

Hint: Start by saying what you see the child doing.