Wisdom from my eldest daughter

Parents meeting this year ended with tears of laughter, when the teacher of my eldest daughter (9 year), revealed me sides of her I oblivious. As it turned out, the Teacher, let’s call her Madame, had announced in class that she would be having her two young god children aged 4 and 6 visiting her soon. A side note, Madame herself does not have any children herself, has an impressive long international career in teaching in international schools worldwide and is the type you generally would not give any advice. Anyways, my daughter thought differently. At lunch time, she had squeezed next to Madame and said: “So, you have these children coming to visit you, right? Well, as you don’t probably have that much experience with young kids (!) so I could give you some tips”. I don’t think she waited before she started.

Rule number ONE: “You will probably want to go to the store with the kids, so my advice is, you set the expectations right and you tell them already before hand: “You won’t get anything”. This will avoid a lot of humiliating bargaining and crying in public”. 

Rule number TWO: “You should always carry “jokers” in your purse (like gum or lolly) that you can hand to the kids if there is a crisis anyways, But remember,  you cannot give these all the time, otherwise they loose their effect”. 

Rule number THREE: “When you have a meal, have them eat half of the plate and then you can give a dessert. Like a piece of cucumber or dried fruit (!!)”. 

Rule number FOUR: “Kids of that age, you will need to tire them before putting them to bed. Swimming late in the evening would be best, but since they are not your own kids you probably won’t dare to go to the public pool with them(❤️).”

Rule number FIVE: “ At any case: DO NOT LET THEM SLEEP TOGETHER! Otherwise, nobody sleeps..”

Madame told me she had applied EVERY single rule, each of them had worked like a dream, and she had even passed these instructions to the childrens parents for further use..

I was already rolling on the floor by this time, obviously also superbly proud of my daughter and her insights at the height of her nine years of which six as an older sister. I also realised the responsibility she -without being asked to do so- is already carrying in her little shoulders. The teacher concluded, that she has innate qualities that will surely serve her tremendously well in life❤️