Let's Ride the Seesaw

I remember, as a little girl, my mom would walk us up the street to a park that was in the center of our little town. It had swings and a steel slide that would burn our skin as we slid down.

My favorite was the seesaw.

The trick of the seesaw was that each person had to scoot forward or back to balance the weight, so we could have a successful ride. If the seesaw was not balanced, the ride did not work.

Relationships are like this. Successful relationships have balance. Give and take. Win-win.

Strained relationships lack balance. If one person is mostly giving and the other is mostly taking, that’s a recipe for frustration, anger, and resentment.

There must be a happy medium between self-absorbed and people pleaser. That’s the idea behind thoughtfully selfish.

People pleasers are always giving. And the self-absorbed people in our lives learn very quickly how to use our giving nature to their advantage. Unless we set healthy boundaries, our seesaw will remain terribly out of balance.

To experience a successful relationship, both people need to scoot and strive for balance. If the person we are engaged with refuses to scoot, then we must get off the seesaw and choose another ride.

Because you know what will happen if we stay on the seesaw too long? Eventually, they will jump off and slam us to the ground.

Which relationships are out of balance? How can you create more balance in these relationships?