Compliments

Youngest member of the ATA

Today we had a nice visit with my friend Tara (Tah-ra not Tayr-ah) and her daughter Amelia. As baby N and NB slept through it, and Little A was not feeling up to hostessing, it was a very quiet visit, with Amelia just tottering around, playing and eating the lovely brownies her mom brought along. Tara is an Australian principal, who is on leave, while she takes care of her little one. They plan to finish out her husband's contract (Chris is also a principal working as a consultant for ADEC) and then live on a house-boat off the south of Australia (between Australia and Antarctica is how she described it).

Before she left, Tara gave me a wonderful compliment. She told me how she was impressed by the kind manner and quiet way I spoke to my children--my voice never got loud and it was always loving, even when I was correcting misbehaviours. After she left my house the previous week, she told me that she wanted to emulate my 'style' and so she tried to make a concerted effort to talk to and re-direct Amelia in the same manner. She was 'practising' one day, in the elevator at Mazyad Mall, and an observer remarked to her: 'You speak to your child in such a lovely way. Have you ever considered teaching?'. We, both of us former teachers, laughed at that comment.

This reminded me of what MY principal back in Edmonton said one day, during a 'parent-teacher-principal' conference we were having. One of the parents in my classroom was concerned that my classroom was always loud and noisy, and that I yelled at the students all the time (seriously WTF to both of those comments). My principal really backed me up and said that in all the times he had been in my classroom, it was always a quiet, calm and controlled environment, and he wasn't even sure I was CAPABLE of raising my voice--if so--he had never heard it.

Some days I feel like I am such an ogre to little A (Baby N and NB S don't need very much re-direction). It was nice to have someone 'objective' pass along this kind of feedback. I don't want any of my children to remember growing up and always being yelled at by their mom.