Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/docia-shares-a-story-learning-from-experiences/5012035/
It was early morning on the first day of the NAEYC conference in Anaheim. I was meeting a friend at a coffee shop at the Disneyland Hotel. The first thing I saw as I went in was a long line of conferees, and the first thing I heard was a young child about three years old screaming at the top of a pair of healthy lungs. He was pulling on his mother's skirt and trying to get her to get out of the line and leave the premises immediately. All eyes were on him and his mother. She looked as though she wished she were somewhere else - anywhere else - but she also looked as though being so close to her goal she was not going to give up her place.I don't know how long she had been standing in line, or how long the child had been screaming; but from the expressions on the faces of the others in line, it had been long enough. The mother's effort to be understanding and reassuring was having little effect. I'm sure there were those who were critical of how the mother was handling the situation; there were probably those who thought ...