Most of our parenting challenges happened in a transition. Getting into the car. Getting out of the car. Time for school, dinner, bed, etc. You get the point. We have four children and one day I recognized that most of our arguments and tension came when we were transitioning from one thing to another.

When you get older, if your parents are still alive, you will begin to parent your parents. How well you parent them will be a direct result of how well you prepare for many transitions (stages) of decline. If you ignore the transition you will have arguments and disaster, but if you intentionally get in front of the transition you will have a better experience. It will still be hard, but the transition will be smoother.

In large events there is often a countdown clock. The clock lets you know when everything begins. (A bell timer often helped when our children were small.) But here’s the point. Whether there is a clock, a bell, or someone with a loud speaker, there was an intentional effort to prepare someone for the show.