“What do you do when you're stuck with a whiner or you
encounter one? Impatient minds want to know...”
I have been a whiner and I’ve been around many
whiners. It is much easier when I am the whiner and I can try to snap myself
out of it. As it is said, I can control my own behavior but I can’t control
others.
I can’t count the number of times I have entered the
teacher’s lounge and encountered the whiners. I learned that hanging around
whiners can bring me down and I don’t want to do that. If I am not close to the
people, I tend to remove myself from the situation. I think about something
else that needs to be done and leave politely. Usually if there is a group of
people, no one really notices when I leave.
Sometimes I’m with a friend who is whining about a situation
that is happening. As a good friend, I will listen and try to be supportive.
Sometimes we all need to whine about something and just need someone to listen.
I hope I’m as good a friend to others by listening, as I want them to be
towards me.
If this friend is constantly whining and it becomes
irritating, I tend to distance myself from the friendship. I try to do it
nicely and come up with reasons why I’m busy but if cornered by this person
about my distance, I will usually be honest. I explain that the negativity
brings me down and I need to distance myself from that at this time. Keeping
this in mind, I try to be more positive in my encounters than negative because
I don’t want to be “that person.”
I also like to talk about this with my students. By
discussing this in advance, they can reflect on their own behaviors. Hopefully
if they are whiners, they will watch the frequency of whining and how it
affects others. Many students are self centered at this age so this would be a
good social skill to learn.
How do you act when you encounter whiners? Please share.
1 comment:
Pat--Thanks for the link earlier (this week?) as well as for this one.
I'm glad you admit you sometimes whine. So do I. Perhaps we can form a club--the Occasional Whiners?
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