Not Wordless

I have spent the last few days finishing up assignments for my Child Birth Educator Certification. Some of my assignments may (ahem) have been submitted without too much in depth thought because I thought I knew what I was doing. I have been an educator for a long time now, after all.

In response to these assignments, I have had a lengthy and sometimes tense back and forth with my trainer via email. She is in New Zealand, so I start every morning with her replies to my messages from 24 hours prior. Today, I am feeling satisfied and reminded that it is never too late to learn and grow.

Yesterday, I was plain pissed off.

She reminded me (maybe ironically as I write all day long) of the importance of words.

She has had only my words to judge my character and as it turns out the words I chose did not present me very well. I was offended by some of the suggestions she made about who I might be, based solely on my words. I defended myself against “her misunderstandings.”(Of course it couldn’t be my fault-right?)
Given time to explain, I was able to defend myself but it was only through giving the story behind my words. What if she hadn’t given me that time? What if the way I initially presented myself with the first set of chosen words and no back story caused her to make a final judgement?

As parents, we talk a lot. Yes, we are given the benefit of in-person contact so there is body language and context and tone that all lend themselves to the power of our words.
But it is still important to remember word choice matters. Words count because they have so much power.
No matter how quickly you spout them off.