I sometimes find it difficult to allow myself the freedom to be. There are certain people I deal with and whom I’ve learned to love dearly, who try my patience at times. Here, I’m not just talking about my children, but by force of circumstance, I’m talking about the people I see daily outside my home life.
It was a Fall evening in the twilight. Mixed emotions filled my stomach as I contemplated how I wished to respond, rather than react, to difficult news that one of my children brought home from the schoolyard. It was a dog-eat-dog kind of day for him, and I wanted someone to be held accountable.
Through a piecemeal effort to pull myself together again, after having recognized the mama bear in me coming out to the playground, I decided upon a much softer approach. My son sat with me on the edge of his bed at bedtime, and we talked about the day's events. By the end of our conversation, he decided that the solutions to the problems he faced in the schoolyard were his own, and he was on top of this. I haven’t heard much about it since that time.
In a heartfelt reminder, our school sent out a student climate survey to ascertain how life in the hallways, classrooms, and play yard was going. During a staff meeting, the survey was addressed, and most students who were surveyed responded favorably to the school climate. A few were unhappy with it, making me wonder which responses came from my son.
In a long stretch of intuitive thought, I decided my son must have responded favorably, too – in spite of his recent experiences. But, I also decided he learned to manage himself in sometimes tricky social circumstances.
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