Nurturing Strengths Through Parenting!

The third term started in a flash, and I ended up being chased by my fifth-grade daughter's homework for the past two days. 💧
But...
An event occurred that made me rethink my own shortcomings, so I am writing it down here.

My shortcomings when I was little

Since I was young, my older sister and father often called me 'short-tempered,' 'impatient,' and 'fickle.'
It is true that when I had a part-time job in college, I would quickly do everything myself because it was faster, I couldn't stick with Shinken Zemi (is that common?), and in a good way, my anger doesn't last long either (lol). This has been helpful, but even if we have a fight, once we talk it out and come to an understanding, it's like 'next!' and we go out to eat together right after or talk normally... it's like, 'Were we fighting?' (My husband didn't seem to be able to keep up with this, though 😅). Anyway, I kept being told by those around me that I was 'short-tempered,' and I was aware of it myself.

Are shortcomings nurtured into strengths through parenting?

That has been brilliantly overturned by parenting. I realized I could wait this long (lol). I had an experience that made me realize this when my child was still in nursery school, so this is the second time I've felt it!!

When I was teaching my fifth-grade daughter the homework mentioned at the beginning, school was starting in two days, and she brought me a mountain of math problems to redo, saying she 'didn't understand' them... (Ugh)

However, no matter how many times I taught her, the incorrect method that had already taken root in her head wouldn't go away, so I had to re-teach her from the previous section... and it just wouldn't progress. I was exhausted from having my whole day taken up. 💧
But my daughter was trying to solve them. She didn't give up. She solved other problems she understood, did her favorite subject, Japanese...

So I also looked at where she was going wrong, had her write out the intermediate calculations, and thought, 'I'm going to help her understand at least one more thing!' I spent two full days acting like a Kumon teacher. 💧 And I thought, 'I am patient, aren't I?' (lol)

Shortcomings are just one side of the coin

They say that strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin, and while the 'short-tempered me' that my family talked about in my childhood certainly exists, it turns out that a 'patient me' also exists. In reframing, people often say things like short-tempered vs. passionate, but I had a side of myself that was the complete opposite depending on the situation. I was reminded again of the 'patient me' that had been hidden and hard to see until now through the process of doing my daughter's homework with her.