What Happens When We Lose Our Patience with the Children We Teach?

What Happens When We Lose Our Patience?  Part of the new workshop:  “How the Child Thinks and the Way the Teacher Reacts” 

Your children will test you and push you to your limits of patience.  They don’t mean to do it. Some of those patience killers are just a part of normal, healthy development.  Children just don’t realize how their behaviors impact others.  When you are in a rush, they will dawdle. When you want to focus on a project, they will interrupt you. When you simply want a moment of quiet, they will shriek, make annoying sounds, and fight, often for no reason or often to disrupt the peace. When you easily see the solution to a problem, they will argue with you throwing tantrums at times because they cannot see the solution at all. *Sometimes, it is the child who lacks patience, and that alone can cause you to lose yours.”

There will be days when you want to demand compliance. “You will listen to me.” “Move faster.” “Stop fighting, and “leave each other alone.”  It is effective for the short term, but it loses it’s effectiveness over time because it conveys a message to your children that says “I don’t respect you.”

How do you find patience?  When you’re ready to accept that you don’t always need to be in charge or on schedule that a few extra moments in your day tending to the emotional needs of the children will actually make things run more smoothly in the end, then you are ready to practice your patience.  Decide to handle things calmly, even do your best to speak with a delightful voice. 

Remind yourself that you are going to try to be more patient because it will make things easier in the long run and then calmly address the problem.  Don’t let yourself feel guilty for not having patience 100% of the time (Nobody is that perfect)!  Just be proud of yourself and reminding yourself to be more patient.