Page 34 - FS-Little Prince

If confronted with a “more powerful” (parent or boss) frustrating influence, we may not have any immediate negative behavioral reaction but because the irrational (should, ought, must) thinking is there, the behavior will occur when the “more powerful” influence is not present. We will engage in, “passive aggressive” behavior or our inappropriate behavior will be directed at the family dog or a younger child. On the playground, the phrase, “I’ll never play with you again” can often be paired with this type of irrational thinking when a playground peer is frustrating the desires of a “Prince.”
As adults, we often want to minimize the frustrating experiences of our children, when instead; we should be encouraging situations which may be frustrating (as inevitably most new experiences will be) and assist them in learning how to cope with the frustration. We are experiencing a renewed debate about “low self esteem,” its importance (or lack of importance) and how adults should deal with the whole esteem issue. Some say that instead of teaching children how to deal with life difficulties, we should remove the difficulty. But this removal, to avoid endangering this “self esteem” can naturally be taken to an extreme.
When the Prince is stung by a bee, his irrational thinking is, “I should experience no discomfort and anything which might cause it should be avoided, eliminated or devalued so that I never have the possibility of experiencing that discomfort.” So rather than learn to recognize bees, which are the most likely to sting you and in what situations, the Prince, again with minimal encouragement from the Wizard, bans all flowering plants. In so doing, he eliminates the possibility of being stung because as the wizard advised, “Look to the source.”
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