Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Good Parenting Moment

Last week, a friend, whose daughter is a good friend of Grace, sent me an email that her daughter was upset with Grace and then proceeded to give me a list of reasons why. Initially, I was kind of hurt, this was a friend of mine that I've known for years. I really wished she would have called me rather than emailing me. But it ended up being a good thing, because I was able to think rationally about the situation rather than responding like a mama bear emotionally.

So, I didn't respond to all that was mentioned in the email. Instead, I emailed her suggesting we meet for lunch with both of the girls and and discuss the sitution. Teach them that they can disagree and discuss and still be friends. She agreed and yesterday we met at the park with lunch.

And it was good. We both really encouraged the girls to discuss the situation. To take responsibility for their roles in the situation. The girls were very hesistant at first, both afraid of losing a good friend (and this really wasn't a very serious matter.) But we got them talking and expressing how they felt, without being accusatory AND without allowing them to make excuses for their behavior.

Every now and then I do something right in this whole parenting thing.

7 comments:

Dawn said...

Good for you, I'm sure it wasn't easy for anyone involved at first!

Never doubt for a moment that you are a GREAT mom!!!

Andrea said...

Nice work Momma!

Dawn said...

Woohoo, mama bear! You handled this so well!!!

Blessings!

a Tonggu Momma said...

What a wonderful example to both the girls AND your adult friend! I probably would have... well... we won't go there. Because the way you handled it was right on.

Kate said...

BRAVO MAMA!!! Emails are so often misunderstood and you did the right thing. You set a great example for Grace and I love that you had her address issues with her friend face to face.

:)

Hilty Sprouts said...

Great job! I will have to keep that one filed away for someday!

lamamachina said...

Wow, you win the mature mom of the month award!