Woodrow Wilson once said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” Transitions are all about change, and that is why they can be so challenging. While asking a child playing with legos to “please put on your shoes” may sound like a simple request to us, from a child’s perspective we are suddenly barging through the door into the comfortable world they’ve created through their play. We are not just asking them to put on their shoes, we are asking them to immediately stop something gratifying, something unfinished, and to reject their own desires and impulses and obediently comply. Not such a simple request anymore, is it?
