A Fresh Start

Parenting is the long voyage, the journey across unknown seas. Our goal is to victoriously conquer challenges, and to successfully navigate the burdens of our lives the lives of my daughters in ways which bring meaning, character, and hope. Yet sometimes my girls face impassable obstacles and despite our best efforts to allow them to struggle through and learn fortitude, to allow certain pain is inappropriate and dangerous, so we need to intervene.

A particular situation happened to reach a breaking point this weekend and our sparkling, vivacious daughter had suffered enough. She experienced severe anxiety, depression, nightmares, and a great fear of school. But she’s my busy one! The daughter who loves activity and engages deeply in everything in life! It was so unlike her. Her teacher has been impatient, difficult, and quite mean. She frequently yells at the class, lacks grace, and belittles our daughter. And we prayed about what to do, how to proceed. We realized the tools we offered our girl to navigate these issues were not going to magically change that teacher’s heart.

And we thought: if September in Fifth Grade is hard and full of my girl’s tears and a teacher’s wrath, how much more can the situation deteriorate?! Nothing was going to change, so we had to intervene and remove our girl from that unhealthy class environment. And we documented everything that happened from the first day, onward, to build the case that a new classroom was the best decision.

So today was a fresh beginning, and she started in a different class with a dynamic, kind, funny, warm, organized, calm teacher. Our girl came home from school overjoyed at her day, acting like her joyful, loving self. She was accepted and valued at school, as it should be!

We couldn’t know this would happen when school started August 23rd, but I’m glad we advocated for our daughter and helped her find a healthier, more welcoming classroom. It’s worth the pain and prayers and frustration we encountered as parents. And worth the many lessons for our three girls: to seek to be kind and loving, even when others are not. And to show bravery to ask for help. And to forgive! And to move forward in hope.