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Dear Readers,
Parenting is a big job. There are so many challenges
when raising children in today’s world.
Sometimes, the problems truly stop you in your
tracks and you really don’t know how to handle them.
Not long after the first day of school, when my
youngest started second grade, she told me that a
classmate had threatened to kill the teacher. I was
both shocked and saddened. It was stunning to hear
that a child as young as second grade felt such
anger and hostility and that she could voice
something as ugly as killing another person.
It was sad that my daughter had to experience this.
How tragic that the other child felt this way about
her school and about her teacher.
My daughter and I talked for a long time about the
event and what might have caused her classmate to
threaten the teacher. We talked about what might
have happened in the other child’s life to show her
that such an outcry was acceptable or that killing
was an option. We talked about anger and about
feelings of hate, and about the inverse feelings of
kindness and tolerance.
After the discussion, my daughter said she felt
sorry for her classmate. I did too. I also felt
sorry for the teacher and the other children and
parents in the classroom. How sad to have a child in
such dysfunction. And what a difficult thing it is
for the teacher and society to have to deal with a
child with such enormous problems.
Two years later, the same child was in my daughter’s
class. And once again, she threatened to kill the
teacher. Not much had changed. She was just a little
older. But so was my daughter. Again, we reviewed
the previous lessons in tolerance and handling
anger. It was hard for both of us of us, but
together we learned a lot.
I am truly grateful that not all parenting
situations are this hard.
But, I am glad that I can talk to my children about
things like this and I work diligently to keep open
lines of communication with them. I am also glad
that I have a good relationship with their teachers
and I know what goes on in the classroom. The world
is not perfect, parents are not perfect and
certainly, I am not perfect. As parents, we do the
best we can do. As long as we do our best and try
hard to find out what that is, we really can’t ask
more than that of ourselves.
Now that school is back in session, we all need to
do our best to help our kids learn, to help teachers
teach and to work with other parents in our quest to
raise the best kids we can.
‘Til October - Happy Parenting!
Brenda
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