Episode 16: When Your Children Attend The School That You Lead

One of the most embarrassing moments of my life happened on a Thursday afternoon in the fall of 1999. I was driving home from school and my cell phone rang. It was my Administrative Assistant and I will never forget what she said, “Mark, Danielle is here in the Main Office. Are you coming back for her?”

I had forgotten my 6 year old daughter at school….

Fortunately, school was like a second home to her and she was happily playing with a toy next to my office. My family still brings this up to this day, more than 20 years later.

One of the biggest regrets of my life was when I didn’t do more to help one of my daughters when she was in Elementary School. She had ADD and her teacher that year was not effective working with kids with ADD. I just kept telling myself it would get better and I didn’t get involved and my daughter suffered.

One of the biggest joys in my life was having my daughters attend my school. All of the car rides and hallway hugs and home volleyball games and drawings on my office door and concerts and just hanging out with them after school are memories that I will cherish forever.

Having my three daughters attend the school that I led was one of the most complex experiences of my career.

I am SO glad that we did it, but it was VERY complicated and took a tremendous amount of work to make it a (mostly) positive experience for them, for me, for my wife and for my teachers.

If you have school aged children or you might have children someday, then today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast is for you! We are going to discuss what it is like:

• Being a Principal/Parent
• Being the Principal’s Kid
• Being the Teacher of the Principal’s Kid

You will also learn several strategies that will help you successfully navigate these complex relationships in a way that will allow you to be an awesome parent AND an awesome Principal!

I know that you are super busy, so be sure to listen while you are doing something else. I hope that you will get value from this episode as you serve and lead your school community. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen to the podcast!

Thanks for making a difference!

Mark Minkus

I’ve created a FREE RESOURCE for you called “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit”. This is a 10 page pdf that will help you to keep your staff and students safe and help keep your school out of court. Litigation is expensive, time consuming and extremely stressful. This common sense guide will help you to be more intentional and proactive when it comes to protecting your school. You can grab “The Top 6 Ways To Protect Your School From a Lawsuit” at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/lawsuit. Thanks!

Please check out all of the free resources on my website that can help you serve and lead your school community. There are "Plug & Play PD's" (45 minute webinars with guided notes) as well as Top 10 Lists of Leadership Books, Productivity Books and TED Talks over at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/resources. You can grab the show notes for today's episode at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode16