I love having children! I love watching them grow and develop and change. That being said, I can also say that one of the most difficult times in the life of any parent is when the children grow up enough to become teenagers. They are so amazing and can also be so frustrating. Especially when they want to do things that you don't think they should be doing. They have a tendency to know everything (or at least, they think they do!) And I hope you never have to try and convince them NOT to do something that they have made up their mind to do! There is no such thing as Win-win with a teenager. It is more often a case of picking your battles. Don't get me wrong, I love my teenagers. I am amazed at their strength, compassion and testimonies. They teach me on a regular basis. It is just that one of the things they seem to really work at teaching me, is patience. I cannot manage to have enough of that in my life. No matter how many I raise, I need more for the next one. I have raised eight of our kids so far, and several foreign exchange students. (I think those count, since I get them as teenagers!) There have been times in our home when we have had as many as eight girls. It can be quite the experience and my husband is a true saint about it. He has been known to go to the store, after a long, hard day at work, and bring home a couple of bags of chocolate! (Or a couple of gallons of ice cream)! Of course, he is then promptly mauled and knocked down as they race to fight over the bags in his hands! I am always looking for creative ways to teach my children correct principles. I found this story several years ago, and I loved the ingenuity that this caretaker showed, in getting through to a group of girls. It also made me chuckle! I love it when the adult wins! It seems to happen so little in my life. I hope that you enjoy this story as much as I do.
HINT: This is supposed to be funny!
A school head was alerted by the caretaker to a persistent problem in the girls lavatories: some of the girl students were leaving lipstick kisses on the mirrors. The caretaker had left notices on the toilet walls asking for the practice to cease, but to no avail; every evening the caretaker would wipe away the kisses, and the next day lots more kisses would be planted on the mirror. It had become a bit of a game. The head teacher usually took a creative approach to problem solving, and so the next day she asked a few girl representatives from each class to meet with her in the lavatory.
"Thank you for coming," said the head, "You will see there are several lipstick kisses in the mirrors in this washroom.."
Some of the girls grinned at each other.
"As you will understand, modern lipstick is cleverly designed to stay on the lips, and so the lipstick is not easy at all to clean from the mirrors. We have therefore had to develop a special cleaning regime, and my hope is that when you see the effort involved you will help spread the word that we'd all be better off if those responsible for the kisses use tissue paper instead of the mirrors in future.."
At this point the caretaker stepped forward with a sponge squeegee, which he took into one of the toilet cubicles, dipped into the toilet bowl, and then used to clean one of the lipstick-covered mirrors.
The caretaker smiled. The girls departed. And there were no more lipstick kisses on the mirrors.
Eeeeewwwwww!!! :)
ReplyDelete