Captains, Tantrums, Pirates, festival reminder

Dear Nursery Families,

      As I was preparing the post below for parent & child families, it occurred to me that some of you may have received them more than once and others not at all. Even if you choose not to reread the articles below, please read the reminder about our parent & child and nursery festival on Friday, June 4, from 9 to 10:30 to which all of you are invited.


Dear Families,

     I had a request last week for support for parents about supporting a child through tantrums.  I will likely touch on this next Wednesday, May 26, during my talk weaving together Tolle and Steiner and Waldorf Education.  For myself, I find the image of a captain at sea useful when teaching or parenting; while I cannot control every element (or I would be like monomaniacal Ahab or a captain doomed for mutiny), I can still be in charge and work with the wind and elements to keep the ship on course.  If a captain is too stern, he is likely to be thrown overboard; too weak, he is likely to be thrown overboard,  I seek just the right balance.


      Here are 3 articles I have written in the past couple of years relating parenting and being a captain.




1)  This article helps us plan our day's journey with our children to make the storms of tantrums less likely or severe (while we should always abandon hope of living tantrum free; there is great beauty and power in making peace with this aspect of development, too).


2) When the storm of a tantrum does occur, here are some ideas to help you and your child pass through the storm with resilience.


3)  As Eckhart Tolle reminds us (and many Waldorf teachers and others already put into practice with grace and effectiveness), there is incredible power in saying yes to what is, into accepting what is now rather than resisting the present moment (this does not mean caving into a toddler's demands to get a tantrum to stop; we still are the parents; we accept our need to parent through what might seem a trial with the same surrender and equanimity--even as we may be need to be firm in holding limits--as we would during an ostensibly easy time with our child).  Related to the sea, here are some reflections about my own journey toward acceptance of the now that I wrote last year to my nursery families.  It is called Falling Cradles, Pirates, and Sewing Up the Wolf's Belly.


It may be that after next week's talk, I will need to create a new series of metaphors about Zen captains.


Although our final classes are next week, May 27 and 28, all families, whether currently enrolled or not, are invited to our Rosebud/Dewdrop/Nursery summer festival on Friday, June 4, from 9 to 10:30am.  We will share our traditional feast of soup and bread, dance our farewell dances to the Maypole, see a puppet show about the Mossy Men, felt, and welcome our bonfire cloth for summer dances.


With warmth and light and thoughts of summer fire,


William Geoffrey Dolde