When My Phone Rang This Afternoon...

After teaching over a dozen years, too many times to count, I’ve had to pick up the phone and make that tough call to parents to inform them that their little Juan or darling Brandi has crossed the acceptable behavior line and will have “serious consequences for his actions.”  Today, I was on the receiving end of that phone call.  Yup, that’s right.  On Liam’s 11^th day of kindergarten (!), he managed to land himself a round trip ticket to Mr. Darin’s office.  Without going into (absolutely gross) details, Liam and a friend found themselves sitting in the front office awaiting their fate after causing quite a ruckus (that involved a plunger) in the boy’s bathroom.  When I picked Liam up at the end of the day, he knew that tonight was going to look quite a bit different than most nights; he was right.  There were tears.  There was pleading.  There was over-explaining.  There were more tears.  There was endless waiting for Daddy to get home.  And then some more tears.  When Jon arrived home, the three of us sat down, listened, talked, and prayed.  Then consequences were administered, and privileges lost.  As always, the anticipation for Liam was worse than the happening.



Just waiting for Daddy to get home.

Being in the role of parent instead of teacher was such a surreal, humbling experience.  I think maybe next time I have this type of call on my agenda, I’ll be a little softer and more understanding than I have been in the past.  Maybe less judgmental.  I certainly appreciate Sloan School’s approach, and I’m very grateful that Liam is in an environment where behavior expectations are high and shenanigans are not tolerated.  I’m pretty sure he got the message.  And I think I also learned a lesson somewhere in the midst of it, too.