First Post!
As the new year starts, like most of us, I’m setting goals for growth. One thing I’ve realized? I’ve developed a social media addiction—mostly to Facebook, where I treat it like a diary, sharing reflections, celebrations, and random thoughts I’m sure no one cares about anymore. But I can’t stop, because I love looking back at those posts and seeing how far I’ve come. This year, though, I decided to shift where I post. I want a space where my daughters can one day read about our life together, understand my journey, and see that I did my best. I’m also hoping to build a community of like-minded moms, especially teachers, through my blog. So here it is.
A little more of a back story: As a 33-year-old daughter, I’ve been tough on my mom. I’ve had to take control of parts of my life that other kids might have learned early on, with their parents’ guidance. My mom approached those lessons differently, so I had to figure them out as an adult, all in an effort to be a better mom to my daughters. After a recent fallout with her, we had a heart-to-heart, and while our relationship remains strong, I don’t expect things to change much—and I’ve learned to accept that. She was raised a certain way, which shaped her parenting, and in turn, shaped me. I’ve grown by recognizing the things I didn’t want to repeat with my own girls, but the challenge is I’m not always sure what the alternative looks like. For instance, I want emotions to be welcomed in my home, but I’m not sure how to make that happen. When my 5-year-old starts to get upset, my instinct is to shut down or run away. By writing about my experiences with emotional regulation among other things, I’m hoping to hold myself accountable and grow in a parenting style that’s new to me, one that was never modeled for me. This will be one of the many real lessons I share as a mom. If you’ve read this far and have any opinions yourself about emotions, feelings, and regulating them in your home, I’d love to hear about it!
I’m about halfway through my 8th year of teaching—five years in second grade and almost three in kindergarten. This week, we’re returning from winter break, and I’m feeling ready for a fresh start. This year, I opened a new school with new furniture and new rules. At the beginning, we were told to keep our walls bare and just get a feel for the space. Now, after 80 days, I was ready to make it my own. Over break, I went into my classroom, took everything down, rearranged the furniture, and started putting things back up. I’m an extreme processor, so it takes me a while to figure out where to place everything in a way that makes sense for the students but also feels good to me. I mean, I spend more time in my classroom than I do my own home sometimes. I’m hoping to get everything just right so I don’t have to do this again—because starting from scratch is a lot more stressful than it sounds!
To close, I’m thankful to have this space (my blog) to share. A space to share what is on my mind as a mom and what is going on in my teaching world. It is such a balancing act that I’ve gotten through on auto-pilot for too long. I am finally allowing myself to process things, and giving anyone reading this permission to do the same!
Thanks for reading,
Danielle
