August 20, 2005
"You believe half of what your child tells you about me, and I’ll believe half of what he tells me about you!”
Berta, the daycare director, told me that when my oldest child was 3 and started daycare.
Her comment taught me an important lesson that day as I went to interview her for the job-- “the road runs both ways.”
You see, I thought it would be a good idea to drop by unannounced and see how that particular day care center was run. She operated it out of her home, I had heard nothing but rave reviews, but still, I wasn’t comfortable.
I had to be absolutely certain that my son would be safe and happy there.
One hears such awful stories.
So, on another day, I brought my son for a visit. He liked it.
As we were about to leave, I told Berta that, yes indeed, I thought this was a fine day care center and I liked what I saw. I asked, “What time should I bring him on Monday?”
To which she replied, “Oh, thank you, but I haven’t made my decision about you, yet. I will have to check your references and get back to you.”
Turns out, I wasn’t interviewing her at all. She was interviewing me!
What a revelation!
When I began to tell my Mom about what Berta had said, she reminded me of a story that happened to her.
She was a teacher in my younger brother’s school. She and Johnny ate in the same lunch room, and she knew everyone who worked at the school. She knew everything that went on at the school.
Or, so she thought.
It seems as though my brother, Johnny, was coming home hungry from school each day. He complained that the cooks in the lunch room had refused to give him mashed potatoes when he went back for more.
Being a teacher in the same school, she thought it odd that they would refuse seconds. In those days, mashed potatoes and gravy, white bread and real butter were served every day. She wondered why the cooks were denying Johnny seconds, but, decided to let it go. It would work itself out.
It did not.
Day after day, my brother would come home terribly upset about how he was still hungry all afternoon. He just wanted some more mashed potatoes.
Finally, Mom had had enough, and her parental instincts won out.
Something had to be done.
After all, this child was hungry.
Her mind raced, “How dare the cooks continue to deprive him of mashed potatoes, especially when he says that lots of other kids get seconds.”
I’m betting you have heard a similar story, and you know where this is going.
Thankfully, Mom did not get too angry with the cooks that day when she went to confront them. She just asked why Johnny couldn’t have more mashed potatoes like the other kids?
As a teacher, she always respected parents who treated her kindly, and so she did the same.
To her question, the cooks replied, "Well, he can have more mashed potatoes, Mrs. Hollenbeck, but he has been coming back again and again for more, and finally, on the seventh trip back through the line, we just had to tell him no!”
Turns out he had not been eating anything else except mashed potatoes, and thus the afternoon hunger pains.
They all had a laugh, and we still talk to this day about “Johnny and the mashed potatoes.”
As Berta said, “You believe half of what your child tells you about me, and I’ll believe half of what he tells me about you!”
