Going Toe to Toe

I consider myself a fairly militant mother. I don’t put up with a lot… back chatting and rudeness are not tolerated in my house. But every now and again your kids have such a good comeback for you, that you just have to give it to them and say to yourself “Okay kid, you win that one.” I had recently had a parent/teacher meeting with Alexander’s (my 5yr old) kindergarten teacher, in which she told me what a wonderful, polite and kind child I had. In fact, she told me that every adult who has ever participated in her class, said that they wished they all had a classroom full of Xanders. However, she said that he was shy about answering questions in class, and only did so if called on – he would never volunteer himself to answer. So she would like him to work on his speaking up in class. Fast forward a few weeks and Xander has a Show & Share presentation to do, in which he needs to talk about a new food he has tried. We worked on this presentation for weeks. There were guidelines as to what he needed to talk about and I had him recite what he was going to say every day. So on Tuesday he is ready! He is going to go to school and impress his teacher with how well he is going to participate! Or not. Xander comes home from school and here is our conversation: Me: Xan, how was show & share? Xander: Great! Me: So, what did you say? Xander: I said I tried a new food and I liked it. Me: WHAT? But that’s not what we practiced! Why did you only say that? Xander: Because that is what the other kids were saying. Me: I don’t care what the other kids said Xander! You are supposed to do what is right. We practiced and practiced, you knew what to say! Xander: Sorry Mom. Sorry Mom. Sorry Mom. Me: Thanks for saying sorry Xander, but I am not going to say it is okay, because it is not okay. You should have done what your teacher told you to do. The conversation paused at this point, and then a couple minutes later resumed… Xander: Mom, some kids brought food to school today for the food drive. Me: Oh yeah? Xander: Yeah, but you didn’t send any food to school with me. So I guess we both made mistakes today – didn’t we Mom? Yep – he wins that one:)