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A Lesson in Gratitude — From My Kids
The practical value of recounting your highs and lows.
Around the time that my daughter started kindergarten, she implemented a new dinnertime ritual. Every night, we have to go around the table and share our favorite and our least favorite (or, in her words, our “not favorite”) things that happened that day. The game was, I surmised, inspired by her teacher’s conversation prompts during their class’s morning meetings. (Yes, “morning meetings” — circle time is for babies.)
Always game for any clues as to what my kids do all day when they’re not with me, I’ve been an eager participant from the start. Over halfway through the school year, I’m all in.
For one thing, this little ritual makes me glad she’s learning the important life skill of initiating a conversation. Not a day goes by that I’m not grateful that she was only a toddler during the pandemic and that the extended isolation hasn’t gravely affected her social skills. Even when it wasn’t exactly fashionable for a liberal mom, I was strongly in favor of a return to in-person education during Covid. This was exactly why.
And, as I’ve already alluded to, “Favorite Thing” (my daughter’s shorthand term for the game) was a window into her day. Unlike her preschool, where I walked her into school each day and had a…