“When my daughter told me about her bully, I advised her to ‘stay away from her.’ Weeks later, in walks her bully’s mother. Here I was, right across the table, with so many things to say. But I didn’t. For the first time in my life, I shut my mouth and listened. This mom was having a really hard day. A really hard life, actually. There was nothing she could do to stop it. She knew it had spilled out onto her daughter and that…that part hurt her most.”
‘I ended up at a play-date with my daughter’s bully. Her pain and hurt spilled out over coffee. I left with guilt.’: Mom encourages daughter to show bully grace, ‘We don’t know what others are going through’
‘She came to us asking why she felt so much anger. Jeremy gave her a hammer. The slightest thing sets her off, boiling just under the surface.’: Daughter ‘relieved to know she wasn’t alone’ after parents help her to ‘release anger safely’
“Our 12-year-old has been struggling with anger lately, erupting when the slightest thing sets her off. ‘Why do I feel this way?’ We found an old desk on the side of the road. Jeremy gave her a hammer. We wanted her to dismantle it. It went faster than I anticipated.”
‘She murmurs in a low voice, ‘But, um…girls at school will make fun of me for wearing unicorn stuff.’ I was at a loss for words.’: Mom urges ‘let’s show our daughters how to be a kind girl’
“The few that circulated rumors. The few that always had something derogatory to say about you. The few that would always leave you out of the loop and make you feel unworthy of being apart of the ‘in’ crowd. I moved to a new city to begin my career as a Nurse Practitioner. I was hit with the reality the mean girls club still existed.”
‘Today, reality hit me straight in the face. It hit me by a 6-year-old holding a box of Ziplocs.’: Teacher receives special gift from student, re-examines idea of ‘success’
“Want me to be honest? Today was rough. I don’t cry and I cried 5 times today. I was ready to crawl in a daggum hole.”
I lied to my students today.
“There is a dirty little secret that most people don’t know. But ask a Title 1 teacher about it, and they’ll nod.”
‘She held my hands and told me how worthy and valuable I was’: 10 ways teachers changed their students’ lives
“It was the first time I ever felt special.”
