Black Friday

In anticipation of Black Friday, I scoured all week for cheap deals that were to be had. Initially, we had planned to buy a lot of baby stuff while the getting was good, but in the end, we never could get things together and figure out what we wanted to buy.

It’s too early to know whether we have a boy or girl, so it’s a bit difficult to buy clothes for the baby. Sure, we could have bought plain white, but who wants boring white when you can have cute little bunnies or dinosaurs printed on them. 

A lot of bigger supplies, like a stroller and tub, are being donated by her sister, who doesn’t have a need for them anymore. I’m sure there are a bunch of smaller knick-knacks that we could buy, but those can probably wait until closer to the birth.  

Not wanting to pass up some good deals, I finally settled on buying five books about parenting. Four were about discipline and one about helping babies sleep. It’s pretty obvious what I’m most concerned about when it comes to parenting.

I refuse to have an out-of-control kid. I think it’s embarrassing as a parent to have other parents and people gawking at you and your child as they have a meltdown in the middle of a store and all you can do is cast them awkward smiles and shrugs, hoping that there’s one kindhearted person in the crowd that sympathizes with what you’re going through.

But I think I’ve got a leg up on most parents. I’ve been teaching kids for 8 years now, and I figure that counts as 8 years of parenting. I think I know a thing or two about disciplining and managing kids. Most people think the hardest part of being a teacher is teaching. Teaching is actually the easiest part. The thing most teachers struggle with is classroom management. What do you do when your class gets out of control?

During my first year of teaching, I grappled with this. My time in graduate school didn’t prepare me for the chaos that would ensue in my classroom. It didn’t help that I also taught in a low socio-economic school where the students had no real proper upbringing from home.

I remember sitting in the classroom after work on some days and wondering what the heck I got myself into. I told myself that if I could get through my first year, I could get through anything in life. It was that tough. But I did get through it, along with every year that followed. 

In my humble opinion, I think I’ve managed quite well. I figure, if I can control 20 crazy kids, how hard can it be to control my one kid? But just to be on the safe side, it doesn’t hurt to read up on what other experts recommend and to re-watch episodes of Nanny 911.