My Secret Terror!

Look at her, she is not scary, she is not even a she, but I have a secret - I despise her!!!

Why you might ask?

Let me tell you my story.

It all begins with the first day of school. What antics are my children going to pull this year? What stories are they going to pass off as truth that I will have to come in and clear up? What questions and frustration am I going to hear on the other end from their teacher? I physically cringe each time the phone rings when the kids are at school, I know that I should not have this fear, but I do. What is their problem? Why did I get so blessed to have such creative and imaginative children? The questions are endless. And yet why am I so worried, they are kids for crying out loud and they do things like that, right?

Oh no, not my kids.

Lets have an example of what I am talking about:

1) Drama Queen was in 2nd grade and as was the usual routine on Monday mornings fun events from the weekend were told during sharing time. We had been on our last camping trip over the weekend and it was really cold at night, early fall was settling in. It was a fun family trip. Fast forward to Monday and it was my day to volunteer at the school and when I came in the teacher grabbed me and we headed out into the hall where she hug-clung to me. She was babbling something about how could I be here with all that I was dealing with, how sorry she was for my loss - WHAT???!?!?!? When she finally took one look at my puzzled face she told me what my dear sweet daughter had told the class during sharing time. Drama Queen told the kids that our family had gone camping on the weekend and her "older" brother had caught pneumonia and died. This whole story was accompanied with tears and was, as her teacher stated, very believable. I just shook my head - I knew it! When we brought sweet-boy home she wanted to take him back to Utah where he came from - we lived in Idaho at the time. I knew that she secretly harbored desires for his demise but this, come on! So every year I tell her teachers that she is the oldest of 2 and she might want her brother dead but he is not going anywhere!!

***

2) Sweet-boy had the most neurotic Kindergarten teacher that I have ever seen. Because he is a BOY he did not fit into the complacent mold that she wanted and almost everyday she called to tell me something that my son did not do. He did not line up to come in for recess. He did not finish his work. He asked to get a drink far to many times during class time. It went on and on till I was sick to death of hearing how much she did not care for my son. I also had to deal with the sad little face of a boy that knew that his teacher did not love him. Kids feel that - who did she think she was fooling!!!!

So why do I bring this up?

Let me tell you - Today 7:30 am the phone rings. Now who would be calling this early on a Friday morning and when I see the number I can hardly wait to answer this one. It is Drama Queens' teacher to talk about all the work that she has NOT turned in for the year. We are 3 weeks into the school year and she has not turned anything in!!! Every bloody year this is what we go through until the teacher/Drama Queen/us find something that works. But frankly I am tired of it, do the work - what is her job? Go to school and learn. It is so annoying and each year I am hopeful that she will finally have gotten it and be accountable for her work and I think that there is some accountability to what she is choosing to do, but come on.



The man told me to relax that it will work out and that it could be worse, we could have bigger problems like boys and drugs. I am grateful it is not that but it does not matter what anyone says, it IS a direct reflection of what people think of you as a parent.



"Oh, there goes so & so she is so wonderful on the PTA board but her kids, tsk, tsk. Did you hear that Drama Queen did this?"



" No, that is so awful. She is such a wonderful voulnteer! Too bad she has BAD kids!"

Okay, Okay I know that I am venting but I get so tired of doing this scene over and over again and then I feel bad for my kids teachers that have to figure it all out again. But I do thank them for their concern and compassion. I think that this is why I volunteer as much as I can within my kids classes. I want to know what they are doing, so we have things we can discuss in detail about their day. I also want to see how good they are doing and also to help those that are struggling more than mine are. I guess in the end it helps me see that this problem that seems so LARGE is really one that we can deal with and we do know how to handle. In the end it will all be alright and like I tell my kids - If you have to repeat (insert grade here) grade again we will still love you.