Open Letter to the Mom at the Zoo Who Lost Her Mind
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Dear Lady Who Lost Her Mind on Her Child at the Zoo,
I am writing you this letter to apologize for the level of judgement and shaming directed toward you after your complete meltdown at the zoo. You see, we stayed at the zoo until closing time, like you did, until the staff usherred us all out. And like you, we saw children begin to absolutely be destroyed and fall to pieces that their day of fun was over with. As we were all herded toward the exit, toddlers began dropping to the ground in pain and agony left and right- like there was a secret sniper on the SkyLift, taking them out one-by-one...
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I mentioned the other day that I was working on a talk about joy—or more specifically, joyful early learning. Praise God, I finished it! Now I'm rehearsing it over and over again (lol). As tedious as that can be, the reason I wanted to give this talk is because… well… I need it, or at least parts of it.
Honestly, based on the emails I receive from time to time, I have a feeling some of you might need it too. About 97.5% of the "struggle" emails I receive are emails I absolutely could have written myself at some point, so there is ZERO shade here. BTDT, for real.
Many of the emails I receive that are related to behavioral and attitude struggles in children are also reflected in the emotional dysregulation the parent is displaying in the email. Sometimes, their language makes it clear that they are genuinely on the struggle bus with keeping it together, feeling overwhelmed, and overstimulated. Even more often, they simply admit it themselves. Whether it's an issue with self-control, anger, or diligence, it's usually confessed before they begin expressing their frustration over their child's struggles with… you guessed it… self-control, anger, or diligence.