It's natural to flip your lid when you see your child has wrecked the place. But this mum discovered why you should ask for explanations before losing your rag.
And it was thanks to an article she'd read on Dr Justin Coulson's Facebook page for parents, that she stopped to let her boy explain.
"I walked downstairs into my lounge room and saw my four-year-old son surrounded by clothes," she wrote, in an email to Dr Coulson.
"Then it dawned on me. The clothes baskets that I had just left on the floor - the ones that held four loads of washing and ironing I'd just completed - were now empty."
Her boy was standing in amongst the clothes, grabbing each item and flinging it into the air.
"Then he burst out laughing," she wrote. "So did his 18-month-old brother, who was watching the destruction of my washing like it was entertainment."
Naturally enough, mum was none too happy about this, and was all set to "blast him."
"I knew all the things I wanted to say," she wrote. "And once I'd said it, he was going straight to time out."
But then, she was stopped - by something she'd read recently.
She'd read an article about the importance of trying to see things through children's eyes.
"I paused. In my eyes, he was being a brat, intent on demolishing all of my hard work. But in his eyes, perhaps he was something else."
So, mustering all the self-control she could, she calmly asked him "What are you doing with all of that washing and ironing?"
What happened next is truly heartwarming.
"He turned around when he heard my voice, smiled, and said, 'Hi Mum.' It was like nothing had happened. I asked him again."
Then he gave her his explanation, and it was the last thing this mum could have ever expected.
He said: "You were asleep upstairs, and Josh (his little brother) was getting upset and I was scared he would wake you up. I started throwing things and it made him happy so you could sleep."
Aww. How wonderfully kind and compassionate this boy is. It just shows you the importance of not assuming the worst of our kids; of stopping to see things from their perspective.
They might just surprise you, like this boy did.
