This is a gentle reminder.
You can’t change their results by worrying about them. Neither can they.
I’m on holibobs right now with two of my favourite tiny humans in the world, my niece and nephew.
It’s made me very aware that my parent-radar has dwindled as my own children have got older. I used to be able to spot a potential hazard from 100m away – hot things, sharp things, any kind of danger – I was AWARE.
Yesterday I was on ‘swim-pool’ duty, which mostly involves being splashed by my 4 year old nephew, and being led up and down the stairs into the pool by my 2 year old niece.
She is…. um…. let’s go with ‘determined’. She knows her own mind, and can bend adults to her will by sheer cuteness alone. And she knows it.
She was in up to her chest, and ordered me to turn and go up a step. As I turned, she let go of my hand (she’s part ninja), and promptly bent forwards and landed face first in the water.
My heart stopped, but also being part ninja myself, I scooped her up 2 milliseconds later. She turned those giant blue eyes of hers on me, and you could see her working out whether this was going to be a big deal or not.
If I’d have done this…
She’d have LOST. THE. PLOT.
It would have taken her at least 3 episodes of Peppa to calm back down.
Luckily, teaching is great for developing acting skills, so I was totally (outwardly) calm, and said (in my singsong, talking to small children voice) “Oopsie! That was silly wasn’t it?!? Shall we go back up a step?”, and that was that! She blinked the water out of her eyes, pushed her soggy fringe out of her face, and then went straight back to dragging ‘Auntie Milly’ up and down the steps again. For another 20 minutes. Yay. ??
Why am I telling you this story? This week is going to hold a LOT of media coverage of the Scottish results, iGCSE results, A-level results, and then afterwards, GCSE speculation.
Your child might be bigger than you by now, but they still look to you for how to handle these situations, just like they did when they were tiny.
If you freak out, so will they.
If you seem worried, they will be too.
They need you to be calm. Even if it’s only on the outside.
They’ll take their cue from you.
So, my advice is to step away from the newsfeed. You see something about results pop up? Keep on scrollin’ my friend!
We’re not at home to Captain Negative today.
Keep in mind that headlines that make you panic, make you read. That’s how news outlets measure their success – readers. Not all of them will be so unscrupulous, obviously, but the ones who are will be splashed all over Facebook, shared by irate parents.
This is a gentle reminder.
You can’t change their results by worrying about them. Neither can they.
Wishing you a chilled out, news-free week… ?
(but crossing my fingers for all of you anyway!)
Em
P.S. If you’d like a more positive way to channel your energy (and theirs) in the run-up to GCSE results day, our 5 ⭐️ Challenge runs from Monday the 17th of August, and will give them a little something positive to think about each day.
It’s designed to help them see a little further into the future, and work out their destination – which is great for getting past any ‘bumps in the road’ that occur along the way…