I am on our annual reunion camp with my old Steiner class who are going into Yr 11 this year.
I taught these kids from Yr 2 – Yr 6 (at Steiner you keep the same teacher) and I did the best I could at the time but hearing some of their reminiscent stories tonight over pizza, I realised that no matter what – we undoubtedly stuff up with our kids! Here are some of the stuff ups I didn’t remember, but they did…
When I totally embarrassed one gorgeous girl in front of the whole class (and a boy she liked) when I suggested she farted a lot due to gluten intolerance.
When I ripped up one boy’s work in Yr 3 because ‘It wasn’t good enough’ and I actually yelled that in his face!
When I made a group of girls accept another girl into their group because they were, ‘excluding her’ when the truth was she had just been a total bitch to the whole group (I didn’t believe them at the time apparently).
Interesting what my Shady choose to focus on, because the kids also told me I taught them it was okay to cry, okay to be angry, okay to be scared and okay to talk about anything, including things other people didn’t like talking about. In summary they said I taught them some ‘good stuff’ about life. Nice hey?
So what’s the ‘How to’ in this post?
I guess it is simply that you are in the right place at the right time with the right kids, whether they are yours or someone else’s. And that when you are doing the best you can at the time it is okay to stuff up because we are all human!
This notion is similar to the message for parents that came up in the workshops this summer…
You are the perfect parent for your child. If you are doing the best you can at the time than no one else (no matter how qualified or ‘impressive’ they are) can do a better job with your child or children than you can. I honestly believe that.
We are here on earth to make a difference – to be ourselves, to have fun, to share our love, to share our gifts, to learn along the way and to follow our dreams.
One of the biggest ways we make a difference is to parent our kids to the best of our ability. Our kids need us to be ourselves with them, to have fun with them, to share our love with them, to share our gifts with them, to learn with them (and from them!) and to follow our dream of being loving, inspiring parents!
Our kids learn to make a difference from our example and influence in their lives!
So keep going! Keep doing the best you can each day. You are the perfect parent for your kids and you are making a difference, no matter what Shady says!
Love Kathy
PS We are starting our monthly ‘More for parents’ tomorrow night (Wed 25th January) so if you want to come along and hear how you are perfect just the way you are we’ll see you there! ($20, 7pm – 8.30pm in the Arena room at the Coffs Showground.)