It was gearing up to be a stressful day.
The kids were testing my patience and during math class, one of my lovelies was following me around. With his paper. Everywhere. Instead of doing what I asked.
We all must realize that this child needs so much POSITIVE attention and will shut down with a minuscule piece of negative attention.
So I got fed up with him, and in a moment of weakness, instead of helping him, I looked at him and said sharply, "I asked you to sit down and try this yourself. You won't even try. I'm getting really annoyed with this right now and will not help you." I said this in my sharp voice. My middle school teacher voice.
He ran away from me, crumpled his paper, and burst into tears.
F*$king tears? Really?
Shit, I thought to myself. I screwed this up. He refused to talk to me for a good 30 minutes. Then, when he realized that I, in fact, was the same person he has loved and adored and wouldn't give up on him (which I think he thinks I did), he came around. And answered questions. And stopped crying.
Stern voices don't work with my babies. I forgot about this. And forgot about how much patience you need with this bunch.
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