In our household (as I suspect is true in many households) my Spouse is the “love” and I am the “discipline” for our Daughter. Now as with all generalizations, this isn’t entirely accurate, but it does reflect typical roles we play as parents.

Tonight when I got home I asked Daughter to pause the TV and go straighten her room while I finished some things downstairs in the shop before dinner. When I come back upstairs Daughter is in front of the TV again and room is still a wreck which is clearly visible as I transit the stairs. I inquire to Daughter what has happened and she says “she didn’t get to it” which leads to a predictable parent response from me “Turn off the TV and take care of your room NOW.”

At which point Daughter heads to room to clean and bursts into tears. Apparently she had a very bad day at school, was over-loaded with homework, and too many extra-curricular activities on the first day back from spring break. To her credit, she works with me and straightens the room but doesn’t calm down.

So Spouse says “go finish the dinner, calming the Daughter is not your forte” which unfortunately is true. We trade and Daughter is calmed by Spouse, I get dinner on the table and away we go. A good reconfiguration that led to reconciliation and harmony.

Which leads me to the reconfiguration at the store. We got some fixtures last week and thought we had them the way we wanted them. But, after living with them for a few days, it became clear that the original configuration simply didn’t work. Thus this week we reconfigured the store and voila! It works.

Sometimes the wind (circumstances) change and it’s time to take a new tack. Don’t be afraid to take a reconfiguration and try again. Life is a great experiment!