At a recent school event, families in my son's classroom got together over dinner with the teacher. It was often awkward at first because the kids had a lot of things to talk about, but not so much among parents, especially when we met for the first time.
Making small conversations helped break the ice. What was so interesting about meeting parents was, at first, it felt like we were very different people because of our upbringing, jobs, living distance, and experiences with the school. Once the conversation lasted for more than 20 minutes, we started to see the resemblance among us all: what we care about our children’s learning and school, their challenges and celebrations, and dreams and future.
Parents speak in one language about their children, and it's love and joy.