Making the Best Decision

I had a patient’s family come up to me this week and express concerns they had about their child. There were concerns about whether they should keep their child in his current school where they felt he wasn’t getting all the support he needed. Or move their child to a newer school, but being that it is a new school it doesn’t have much of a history or track record.
 
I could tell these parents were really concerned about this decision and didn’t know what to do – keep their son where he was currently enrolled knowing that he may not be getting all of the support that he needs, or move their child to a different school hoping for the best but not knowing everything about this new school.
 
I took some time to reflect on the parents’ concerns and it hit me. It hit me how much this happens in our lives. How many times are we faced with a decision – big or small and unsure of how to answer it? Do we stay with what we know, or do we take a risk with something new, hoping it will benefit us?

In this case, it was a big and important decision for these parents, I discussed with these parents that we (when I say ‘we’ I mean everyone) try to make the best decision at any given time with the information we have. We can’t predict the future, so we make the best decision we can at the time with the information we currently have.
 
In this scenario, the family knew information about their son’s current school, but they didn’t know too much about their son’s potential school. These parents were going to make the best decision they could for their son with the information they have at the moment. They could not look into the future and see what may possibly change – for example, their son may get a new teacher at his current school in the future, or the new school may offer different services that really benefit their son. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what changes may happen in the future. As a result, we make the best decision we can at the time.
 
Hopefully, that decision turns out to be the best. However, if we happen to make a decision and look back at it and realize it wasn’t the best decision, it is ok, and we want to be patient and try to not get mad at ourselves for that. We made the best decision we could at the time with the information and facts available. (We couldn’t make that decision based on information we did not have or by what information may become available in the future.)
 
I hope this information is helpful for you this week.
 
What decisions are you trying to make right now? Let me know at blog@goflowoccupationaltherapy.com
 
See you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L