Channeling our inner child...

by Elle Vatterott, IWM serving in San Antonio, Texas.

A few weeks ago one of the children caught the flu. Since her mom has a full time job, I stepped in to care for her.

Glenda is a very spirited 7-year-old. She has already established quite the reputation around the Visitation House for refusing to take any medicine, but I did not let this discourage me. I tried to think of this as an opportunity to help her understand the all important lesson that sometimes we have to do things that are not pleasant. I had an entire day and plenty of ideas to accomplish my task.

After the first hour I had exhausted most of my resources, and clearly Glenda had the advantage. To her defense, the “banana-flavored” liquid medicine was quite awful and left a pungent metal aftertaste. I truly believe that Barbie herself could not sweet-talk Glenda into swallowing her medicine! There was only one option left: the dreaded “time out.” I had never used this discipline method before, but I felt as though it was the only way to get through to her.

Never underestimate a child’s will power. Glenda spent most of that day in time out. Every hour I asked her if she was ready to take her medicine and watch the Cheetah Girls movie with me, but she would just shake her head no. At the end of the day I had made little headway. I had mixed a half dose of medicine in a cup of Jell-O, which she reluctantly nibbled on for 90 minutes. The second day was worse. She refused to even discuss the possibility of taking the medicine. Feeling completely exhausted and defeated I gave up, and let her sleep the rest of the day. The following morning Glenda’s flu had reduced to a mild cough, which made her healthy enough to return to school.  On Friday Glenda came home with a hefty amount of make-up work to finish by Monday. I dreaded tutoring her over the weekend, mostly because I anticipated that she would be cranky from the previous week.

However, she was not the least bit angry. While she was still a little sick and drowsy, Glenda willingly completed all of her assignments on time. And when we finished her last worksheet she looked up at me and said, “My mom made cookies.” I replied, “That’s great Glenda! I bet they’re delicious.” 

Then she paused for a moment and tenderly asked, “Elle, can I go home and ask her if I can give you one?”

 “Of course you can, I would love it,” I said.

After Glenda came back and handed me the cookie, she gave me a big hug and skipped back home. I was completely shocked that she could still like me after sending her to time-out for an entire day and then making her do homework over the weekend.

I cannot stop thinking about that experience, and I find myself acting much more compassionate and affectionate toward the children because of it. In a way Glenda is a very wise little girl - she taught me about the infectiousness of simple acts of kindness and the advantages of practicing forgiveness.

So in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I am working on channeling my inner child to bring about that same gentleness and unconditional love that Glenda showed me.