Personal reflection

There are certain situations in life, that draw attention to elements of yourself you feel you need to improve.

I reacted strongly to a situation involving a harmless, yet uncontrolled dog invading my space whilst pushing a pushchair and leading my dog. I was polite initially, but a dismissive reaction from the careless owner caused my to erupt. This sort of reaction was my natural response to a situation that caused me anxiety and I just wanted my dog and my son out of harms way. No one can ever actually predict what another being is going to do, so the useless flannel of an owner insisting that I knew nothing of children and dogs as her cockerpoo would never hurt a fly, and she has 5 kids, was neither constructive nor helpful in my quest to hold my patience. So I got sweary and shouty instead; the dog was put on a lead and the woman abruptly returned the way she came.

My issue is that I don't want Leo to experience that sort of behaviour, whilst the outcome was what I wanted, the method was a little unnecessary. There are times when you do need to shout and react quickly and strongly to keep everyone safe, this was not one of them. Fortunately and unfortunately at the same time, this isn't a situation that you can really practice too often!