So True...

I found this old quote while unpacking and sorting through my boxes of teaching stuff.  I found that though it is meant "Between Teacher and Child" it still holds a lot of truth between Parent and Child.

Between Teacher and Child

"I have come to the frightening conclusion.  I am the decisive element in the classroom.  It is my personal approach that creates the climate.  It is my daily mood that makes the weather.  As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.  I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.  In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.  This awesome realization must govern my daily conduct if I am to be the best that I can be."

-Dr. Haim Ginott