Parenting, Progress, and Conferences – A Note from Natalia

Dear Breck Families,

There is a special kind of energy on campus during Parent/Teacher conference days. These days are the concrete representation of the partnership that we aim to have with our students’ families at Breck. In the Lower School, there is an ethos of both positive and nervous energy for our parents hearing about how your children interact with all aspects of school, which most days they simply love! In the Middle and Upper Schools, students are some combination of (just enough) nervous, (understatedly) proud, and (as typical adolescents) slightly apathetic. I love that at Breck, we get to see the entire gamut — all under one roof! That gamut of human development reminds us how incredibly hard and rewarding it is to raise our children these days.

You know that adage, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes”? Admittedly, that’s how Bobby and I sometimes feel about our own parenting! This past weekend I had the chance to visit our daughter, Andi ‘23, who is a second year college student in Colorado. While there, I filled several hours of driving by listening to Lisa Damour’s book, The Emotional Lives of Teens; Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents. Don’t let the title fool you, there is a lot in the book about pre-teens. And as we now understand more about human development, those of us with children in their early 20s can also gain a lot from it.

I cannot recommend this book enough! At Breck, our Peter Clark and Melrose Centers do an incredible job of offering speakers and content for parents all year long. These learning opportunities are a huge benefit to being a Breck parent. You probably already saw in our last bulletin that Dr. Lisa Damour is the next speaker in our Parent Education About Kids (PEAK) series (you can RSVP here). I am telling you - I cannot wait. I hope you will read her book and come to the events on November 11 and 12. On occasion, parenting books get some attention from our Breck parents. Rarely have I read a book where I felt compelled to write to you and say, "THIS is the book we are recommending to every parent.” I know that if I had read it years ago, I would feel a little less like the cobbler I referred to earlier…

If you are able to join us for Dr. Damour’s event, please don’t hesitate to stop me and ask about my own parenting wins and fails — I’m an open book and this book made me realize we are all works in progress.

Wishing you a great conference with your child(ren)’s teacher(s).

Warmly,

Natalia