Jennifer retired from her corporate job and now owns a bakery in New Jersey. Jennifer tells us what she’s realized during the pandemic.⠀

“I’m so grateful that I did that two years ago. I felt like everything was going so fast. Now I’m seeing things I wouldn’t have seen if I was still working. With the pandemic one thing I’ve realized is that my daughter is a perfectionist. I hadn’t thought that being a perfectionist was a negative thing until I saw her really struggle. I’d see her sitting at her desk silently crying about not being able to do something.

I wanted to figure out how to get her back on track of being her high achieving self with high potential. I saw her crying one day over painting and I took the opportunity to go through the Prepared Parents perfectionist tip to ask her, why do you think you have to do everything right? Why isn’t just trying something good?⠀⠀⠀

I recognize that I’m a perfectionist, too. So, I have to be careful what I model. I have to acknowledge and model for her that things don’t always work out how you want it to and something is not always perfect, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not the very best job you can do.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

She was really skeptical, but she also acknowledged that she didn’t like how she was feeling either. It’s gotten better.”⠀

– Jenn in New Jersey