Banish Wishful Thinking or Let go of Hope

Part of being mindful as a parent is accepting reality as it is, not as we wish it to be. This is hard because our ability (or habit) to engage in wishful thinking about our family or children or jobs or whatever is persistent. This form of denial is powerful because it doesn't seem like denial. It seems more like 'hope'. And what's wrong with hope, right? Whether Hope or Denial, wishful thinking prevents us from being present in the moment, from acceptance and from taking appropriate action when necessary.
When our children are acting out in any number of ways we often secretly hope or wish it will not happen again. If we banished wishful thinking we would know that in all likelihood it will happen again and we can prepare for it. We can strategically plan what our response will be, we can experiment with different responses and consequences. We can take a more detached and less personalized perspective on our child's problem behaviors. Accepting what is going on with out false hope or wishful thinking is actually freeing. It frees us to think things out, think strategically and prepare. If we know that our child is going to act out in some way then when it happens we are not caught off guard and we see that it is not a crisis but another opportunity to help our child learn.