It's the Little Things

I took a "sick day" yesterday. Feeling much better today. I woke up this morning thanking God for giving the Nyquil people the recipe.

Parent/teacher/student conferences this week at school. This is our second round of conferences with the kids there, too. For the most part, I'm ok with everyone coming to the party. I'm big on the whole get our expectations of each other out on the table (see http://juliedahlberg.blogspot.com/2008/01/say-it-out-loud.html to read more) so I think it's fine for the kids to be a part of the conference about them and their work.

Here's what I worry about. You know how we hold on to some little thing someone said either to us or about us, and we carry it around our whole lives? This little thing is probably not remembered by the speaker, and probably carried little weight when it was spoken. But it's a thing that we take ownership of. Could be a word of encouragement or motivation that has had a tremendous impact on who we are today. Could be something that hurt, and it's a scab we keep picking at.

I worry about saying something in passing to a teacher in front of one of my children and having it mean more than it's intended to. I don't want my kids to grow up carrying around some flip remark I've made.

Problem easily solved, Julie, you say. Just keep your mouth shut! I will try. Of course, I need to watch what I'm saying all the time, I know, but for some reason, this is one of the things that comes to mind at conference time.