A bad day at school

As I was preparing to teach clarinet lessons, I got a phone call from the mom of one of my students, D.  She told me that D had decided not to come to his lesson that day, and that he needed to speak to me.  So I waited for him to get on the phone.

“Hello, ” he grumbled.

Man, was he seething!

“Hey, D. What’s….”

“I have decided not to come to clarinet lesson today because I was very angry at school today.”

“You had a bad day at school today?”

“YEAH.”

“What happened?”

“I got angry and lost the entire RECESS!”

“Oh, wow,” I said.

“So I’m too angry to come to clarinet lessons today!”

“Ok.  Do you want to make it up another time?”

“YEAH.  Bye.”

His mom then talked to me again, and said that D was really upset, and wasn’t coming today.  She said that she also told him that if he was going to make that decision, he needed to be the one to call me.  He needed to be responsible.

I told her, “Good job Mom!  Good words, D!”

We’ll make up the lesson.

D is learning his boundaries.  D is learning to take responsibility for himself and his decisions. I am trying to teach all of my children this, as well.

Kids growing up to be responsible adults: that gives me hope!