The Woman Who Always Yells

There's a worker at my boys' school whom the boys refer to as "the woman who always yells."  I'm not sure if they even know her real name.

She supervises lunch and recess.  I've heard a few stories about her so far, including that it hurts Griffin's ears when she blows her whistle near him at recess.

Today Griffin got a school lunch for the first time (as opposed to taking a packed lunch).  The children have to choose their lunch first thing in the morning by selecting a colored card that corresponds to one of the three lunch choices.  Griffin calls it "voting for lunch," which makes me smile. 

So Griffin wanted to vote for lunch today.  It was an exciting event, and I was secretly nervous about how it would go.  Griffin isn't exactly known for doing well with new experiences.

After school today I excitedly asked Griffin how voting for lunch went today.  His answer was simply, "No."  I had to press for more information.

Apparently The Woman Who Always Yells yelled at him today.  Something about milk.  I had to know more.

He said he forgot to put his milk on his tray.  He said in his matter-of-fact voice, "I'm supposed to carry my tray with two hands.  I thought I should carry my milk with one hand.  I just didn't have enough hands."  So The Woman yelled at him.

Then he cried.

What happened next?  Everyone asked why he was crying.  And what did you say?  "I said I wanted you."

Griffin voted for the hot dog lunch choice today, and he chose peaches as his side.  I asked if that was enough to fill him up, and he said it was. 

In fact, The Woman Who Always Yells came over to his table after he had eaten all his food.  She said he would grow to be very big and strong because he ate all his food.  She told the other kids to eat like him. 

"And she patted my head."

I pointed out that The Woman Who Always Yells can be nice sometimes, too.

Of course, that wasn't my first reaction.

As Griffin was talking (and Nolan was adding his own commentary and impressions of The Woman Who Always Yells), I went through the following thoughts/reactions:

1. Who is this woman?  I'm coming to school to meet her.  And have a private conversation with her.
2. Maybe her job really is frustrating and she has to be loud to be heard over a cafeteria full of children.  But then again, yelling at the students isn't the best way to get your point across.
3. Maybe I should talk to the principal about this notorious worker.  
4. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to teach my kids about dealing with difficult people.  This woman is not the last crabby person they'll encounter.  They need to develop the skills required to interact with negative people.  I need to develop these skills.

And then we moved on to talk about other parts of the day, like how Griffin was the Star Student for the day.  He showed me the book his classmates made for him, where each student drew a picture of Griffin.  He named every student, many by first and last name, and told me the nice things his teacher said about him.  He carried the book around with him everywhere he went after that.

These children can be frustrating.  Some days I'm The Mom Who Always Yells.  But some days I just can't stifle my smile over the boy who was the Star Student and voted for his lunch for the first time.

Every day brings new adventures from school!

Jessica