Seen your chimp recently?

I recently went on a course with work. This one was actually immediately useful.

Apparently, the emotional part of your brain responds four times faster than the rational part of your brain. For both evolutionary reasons and to capture your attention, this is called our chimp.

Once you see your chimp, it’s very hard to unsee it. 

Although, as we get older, we get better at managing it. Usually.

That was put to the test on returning home.

Both kids had bees in their bonnet and introduced me (again) to their chimps. Explaining my recent learning did distract them momentarily and eased the escalation. Sort of. 

Although I might have heard mutterings of mum being more of a gorilla when they walking away…