by Judith Cassis
Working from home is a gift to the family, but is not without its challenges. This is one I
remember best.
Psychology buffs may recall Ivan Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning, where
dogs were trained to salivate in response to the pairing of meat with the ringing of
a bell. After several pairings, the bell, which had been a neutral stimulus, became a
conditioned stimulus causing the dogs to salivate when they heard it, even when there
was no meat present. Complicated?
Not when you think about what happens every time the phone rings. Your previously
busy youngster is drawn to you like a magnet. One who was reading quietly in the
corner is now draped from your waist with alligator tears running down his face, or the
kids argue – and it just so happens that client you’ve been waiting for is on the phone.
Sound familiar? This was a regular occurrence in my house.
My solution: I rarely gave my kids cookies, saving them for when I was on the phone
and needed them to be quiet. Consequently, every time the phone rang, they cried,
yelled or whatever, making it necessary for me to hand them cookies. I never figured it
out; not until years later. I had turned them into little Pavlov’s kids:
Phone Rings —– Child Cries —– Mama Grabs Cookies. Classical conditioning at its
finest.
Judith Cassis,C.Ht. is a Personal Development Consultant with 26 years experience. Known as “The Bounce-Back Coach”, she works with people who are “bouncing back” from failure, loss or tragedy. Judith is co-owner of a small newspaper,Tidbits of Santa Clarita Valley, www.tidbitsscv.com a family business she and her husband, Lee Cadena run with their sons. Through a monthly teleseries, Mama Come Home, Judith supports mothers in staying home or returning home to raise their children.

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