School Families

 

This image comes from https://parade.com/1045384/marynliles/family-quotes/ and full credit goes to them. No copyright infringement is intended.

This image comes from https://quotes2remember.com/quotes/439 and in other images the words have been attributed to Les Dawson, Bear Grylis, and others. Since this site encourages sharing, I am posting it here with a link to the original source. 

Monday, February 21, 2022 is Family Day in Ontario. I will be spending it with my immediate family (consisting of my husband, daughter and son). Family Day was first celebrated in Ontario in 2008 and on that very first celebration, we took my children out to a restaurant to eat. They declared "this is now a tradition" and sure enough, every Family Day, we go out to eat together. I love my family!

I may love my family, and my family loves me, but that doesn't mean we live in utopic bliss. We don't get to pick our family (except for those we marry into and, well, it's part of the whole package, I guess). Our family members are precious to us but they can be a bit trying at times. In our family, we have superhero and supervillain names we've given each other, which hint at some of the traits that sometimes make interactions difficult: The Quibbler, Crankenstein, Professor Malice (more of a troll than malicious, before you get too alarmed), and The Lizard Queen. As the first quote suggests, sometimes we save our worst conduct to share with those closest to us. We are less polite or snappish or respond with less appreciation than we should. 

Challenges reset these patterns of behaviour sometimes, or moments that remind you that circumstances can change without warning. For instance, on Sunday morning, I woke up feeling "not right" and after examining the clues, especially the tingly aura surrounding my left arm, I realized that I was having a migraine. I treat my migraines with a combination of medication, dark spaces and sleep. I lay on the couch with a pillow over my head and conked out for three hours. Everyone in the family was so considerate and sweet. They let me rest and when I awoke, they made me lunch, gently hugged me and checked in on me. (My love language is all about the hugs, so this made me happy.) 

School families operate in similar ways - but without the hugs. We don't get to pick who is in our school. The principals may get a bit of hiring choice at some point but not enough to hand-pick every member of the team. The staff members and students I work with are special to me but that does not mean we always see eye-to-eye or we never get on each others' nerves. I know I get frustrated with things my colleagues say or do. I grit my teeth. I grumble. I rant to sympathetic ears. Depending on the person, I may even subtlety address the issue. As the second illustrated quote in this blog post says, families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. (Apologies for the implications around mental illness, but I couldn't find an appropriate quote that captured the essence of my thought in a better way.)   I still like my school family members.  After all, I'm sure that sometimes they might feel similarly about me. Like actual families, we deal with each other the best way we can, be it minimizing contact with those who are particularly vexing, taking a tolerant approach to those who are merely irritating, or seeking what role you can play in improving relationships. Happy Family Day!