When your child is your teacher

William Wordsworth wrote - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧

or 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛, would be more appropriate in my case 😄.

When I watched 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑟𝑜𝑛 𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑦 years ago, one thing stayed with me: despite all her strength and conviction, Margaret Thatcher was advised to undergo voice coaching—something that ultimately supported her rise to the top of her political career.

But I live in a different time. Many women today are unapologetically owning their voices exactly as they are. I’m no different. As someone who is selectively mute and naturally soft-spoken, I rarely take comments about my accent or voice seriously. A colleague recently corrected my English pronunciation, and I shrugged it off with, “𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐼’𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒 100% 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑛‑𝐸𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑.” I’m confident in who I am and refuse to “fake” an accent—happy to learn at my own slow, authentic pace.

But staying this stubborn gets harder when it comes to my child.

The other day, while listening back to my new podcast 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟑: 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐩 recording, my daughter overheard it too. She suddenly looked at me.

I paused.  

“Anything wrong?” I asked.  

She frowned and said, “𝑆𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑? It’s 𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑.”

Sacred it is, I thought.

I immediately ran back to re-record that part. And in that moment, I was reminded of exactly what that episode was about: 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧-𝐮𝐩𝐬. How fortunate I am to have such wise little teachers in my life. 😄

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮—𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝?