Joy #15

Well, today was not the best day at school for Ethan. He hasn't slept well for the past few weeks, and he's experiencing some hard stuff emotionally right now, add excitement about the upcoming holiday, and you have a recipe for disaster. So today when I went to school to pick Ethan up, I wasn't all that surprised that he was in some trouble. This is not actually the first time he has had a bad day, believe it or not. In fact I have a little bit of experience with it. And in my many years ( well, 5 anyway) of handling these situations I have found that there are two main things that usually happen. One, the teacher will sugar coat it and play off like it isn't any big deal, or make up excuses for him. Or the teacher will give it to me straight letting me know each and every little thing Ethan did that caused them the least bit of grief. Some days I like the sugary sweet version, but most days I'm thankful for good teachers that tell me the truth. Regardless of the fact that I get a lot of advice telling me I'm wrong about this, I believe that Ethan is capable of doing just about anything that any other kid his age can do. No, it isn't always easy for him to do, and sometimes we have to go about doing it in a completely off the wall way, but I expect a lot out of him, and he usually exceeds everyone's expectations. So sugar coating doesn't work for us. I need the facts in order to be able to explain to him what is wrong and what he should do next time. And yes some days that means I go lock myself in the bathroom and cry for a minute, but we wouldn't be where we are today without that honesty. And our teacher this year is very honest. She tells the truth every time. And even though that makes me a little sad for a second sometimes, it is something that I really truly do appreciate, and at the end of the day it really does bring me a lot of joy.
And today I spread joy by keeping my cool and helping Ethan make up an entire day's worth of work in one night, without stressing out or getting angry. And yes, that only helped Ethan and me, but that's good enough for today.