Today's Musings

My mind is a jumble this morning. I could write about the snow.... I could write a gratitude list.... I could write about my grumpy cat named Sam.... I could write about my unusual and interesting daughter. 

This year I have a commute to work, it is about a 50 minute commute. My 10 year old accompanies me. She goes the the school where I work. The commute has become our time to discuss deep subjects. There is a girl in her class that she has almost constant conflict with and she often dwells on this and talks about it over and over again. So this week she said to me, "how do I stop being mad at her all the time?!" I love teaching moments. So.... here we go. I said, "Stop talking about her. Focus on something else beside the conflict with your friend." "How do I do that?" she asks. "Good question" I think to myself. I say to her, "Your brain can only think about one thing at a time, so think about something else and focus on that." Her response is, "How do I do that?" "It is easier said than done," I think to myself.  I think to myself, "Now what? She is still at that impressionable age. She still thinks I really know what to do. What am I going to do now?!" But what I say is, "I am not sure. But one thing is to stop talking about it. No more negative comments about this girl." She says, "Okay, I'll try." 

Driving home I say, "So how was your day?" She is really quiet. I say, "Any drama with (her)?" She says that there was not. I make a little bit of a smart remark. Something to the effect of "Kind of surprising that she didn't cause drama today." My girl looks over at me and says, "Mom.... stop. If I can't do it, you can't either." 

Lesson learned. Practice what you preach. You live what you focus on and talk about. So who learned a lesson this day? The pupil or the teacher? How often do I learn from my child? More than you know.

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