Read: "In these times, it's no longer OK to be mere champions for our kids--we need to be superheroes. We are not just the squeaky wheel that gets oiled--we are the VERY LOUD wheel. We are not just pushy--we are steamrollers." -- Ellen, in the post "Outrage of the Month" on the blog To the Max
Reflect: Do I have to be a squeaky wheel or a steamroller to get what my child needs? Do I sometimes steamroll when a lighter approach would work better? Am I afraid to be as loud as I have to be?
Respond in the comments with your own thoughts on this quote and how it applies to your life with your child.
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Squeaky wheel, maybe, but a steamroller can be counterproductive.
Just today, I ran into another mom at my kids’ school whose child has very similar learning issues as my child. This mom is definitely a steamroller.
My experience with our kids’ school and its teachers has been mostly positive. If my child needs something, I try to work with teachers and administration to figure out how this can be happen and what I can do to help it happen. And usually we are able to come up with some solution.
But this mom is very demanding, and I think has unreasonable expectations from the school. And frankly she asks other people to do things for her child that she is not willing to do herself.
Today, she started telling me about all these school policies that I know have not been enforced with our family and teachers who have gone out of their way to be helpful to us who were the opposite for her.
It was like we were talking about two different schools. But people don’t like to be steamrolled so I think she gets a very different reaction and in the long run she’s not helping her child.