We’re big fans of reviewing our daily highlights. We do this around the dinner table or midway through the kids’ bedtime routine.  

We also discuss our lowlights, beginning the conversation with the question: what’s one thing you would change about today? 

The other night, my five-year-old said, ‘I’d have it so my friend looked where he was going so he didn’t hurt himself.’  

Cue the wide, glistening, manga-cartoon eyes from his mother and me. What a kind thing to say. 

And he knew it – of course he did – because we reinforced our expression of adoration with affirmative language.  

The next night, he told us something similar. And again the night after. 

Was he making this up for our benefit? I’m going to go with almost certainly.  

But it doesn’t matter because he is 100 per cent complicit in helping us reinforce the message that kindness is a worthy pursuit.  

In this instance, I genuinely believe there’s something in the whole fake-it-till-you-make-it philosophy. Because reinforcement – of the positive kind – is a powerful ally.