The other day I took the sweeties to the school playground a few blocks away. School was out for the day but we shared the playground with those kids in the after school program. We went about our business playing on the slides and swings, but it wasn’t hard to get distracted with the happenings taking place with the other kids and adult supervisors. In particular there were these twin boys who were making their presence known; fighting with each other, throwing mulch, teasing the other kids, etc. These two could not have been more than six years old. My heart instantly felt for them. It was obvious that the supervisor’s familiarity with these two had created a lack of patience and understanding when dealing with them. These were probably the same antics that these two pulled yesterday on the playground and the day before that. At one point the boys were serving time for one of their crimes and the teacher called them naughty as she was putting them in time out. I was dumb founded! You are going to label these two young kids as naughty and then act surprised when they only act the way in which you’ve labeled them?!? The teacher seemed more interested in getting back to her conversation with the other adult supervisor than she was with dealing with these two boys that needed correction.
What struck me is how I could see the damaging words this teacher used because I had fresh eyes. I don’t deal with these two boys every day and my patience wasn’t worn thin. How often do I respond in anger, frustration or annoyance with my own kids because I am familiar with them? “I just told you 5 minutes ago that we don’t scream inside!” I might not use the words naughty or other harmful labels, but my tone is still telling them that I am annoyed and I don’t have the time or patience for loving correction.
I will keep working on this…
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