According to the Collins Dictionary, expectations are your strong hopes or beliefs that something will happen or that you will get something that you want.
Brene Brown says that “Disappointment is unmet expectations, and the more significant the expectations, the more significant the disappointment.”
In our busy world it can be hard to find time for special family outings, making them even more special when they do happen. For this reason, we can build up our hopes, dreams and expectations of how the family outings should go. We dream of fun, happiness and love. However, there are many things that are not under our control and things will naturally go wrong.
On Friday I took my family to see the light creatures at Adelaide Zoo. It was supposed to be a fun night out but not home too late. First of all we met my husband at his work and I got a bit lost! Ooops! Then we walked to the Botanic Gardens where there was a different light show on – I had got it wrong, so it was another walk to the Zoo. Then we had to queue up to get in. My daughter was bored and hungry. Finally we made it in and it was great! We looked at a couple of lights, got some dinner, looked at more lights, got some donuts (a rare treat) and finished off with the rest of the lights. We ended up having a lovely time exploring the zoo in the dark and watching the amazing light creatures. Then we had to walk to the bus to get home. As we were waiting to cross the lights our bus went past so we had to wait for the next one which was going to be in 25 minutes time, but ended up being 15 minutes late. It was cold and raining.
My daughter was tired and bored again. She said it was the worst Friday ever! I told her what we had done at the zoo and how that was a special treat that we had all enjoyed together. I tried to convince her that the waiting for the bus was only one part of the experience. This made me reflect on my own attitudes as well. I was disappointed in myself for causing so much extra walking at the start and then at the end was only thinking about how cold and tired I was. I was thinking just like my daughter!
So, the next day while we were all having lunch, I asked my daughter which had been her favourite animal the previous night. This led to a discussion about many of the animals we had seen and the rest of the evening did not even rate a mention. I would call that a success! Even now as I write this, another day later, I am thinking of the animals more than the rest of the night.
Of course, we are going to have dreams of the way things should go, but when they don’t go according to plan we need to take the positives from what did happen and focus on them. If we hold on to what went wrong we will end up feeling more disappointment. I for one am ready to give the next family outing it’s own chance to shine.
About the Author
Sally is a home organisation and budgeting expert with a passion for helping families take the stress out of everyday tasks by creating simple, efficient and cost-effective processes. Her strategies can result in more time and energy being available to spend time doing what you love. Sally is a quiet budgeting queen, home organisation specialist, wife, mother, animal-loving mathematician and so much more.
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