March 2000

*March 04, 2000*

~WARNING RANT BEGINS~

Another tough start to the month. My daughter has been spinning out of control lately and I am having further problems with the school not following my instructions. In this case Sabrina was instructed to leave school at 3 pm to be home to change and go to an apointment. The teacher was sent TWO notes informing her of this. At 3:20 I phoned the school asking when she had left only to be told she had decided to stay and get a ride home with a neighbour. EXCUSE ME?! Since WHEN does a seven year old DECIDE not to follow my instructions? Since WHEN does a school allow her to do that ? Needless to say I was a lot less than impressed with her Teacher on this matter and will be requesting a formal meeting next week when report cards come home. They have been complaining that I am doing nothing about her behaviour problems and then go ahead and pull this stunt. They had better not be handing me the excuse they were concerned about her walking home by herself because she does every day anyway and I had arranged for a friend to keep an eye on her as she walks part of the same way herself. I am sick and tired of handling them instructions on how to deal with my daughter and them throwing them out the window and telling other people I know all about how I am failing to co-operate with them.

~RANT ENDS~

*March 07, 2000*

Why is it I always seem to start a month with a rant? Hmmmm.

Have been busy sewing for past couple of days. You know what it's like when the "bug" hits and you start a project and see it through until it's done in one shot...right?

*March 08, 2000*

A tough morning. Watched my daughter lose her "best friend" this morning because of the fighting between them. She is no longer allowed to play with her at all. It hasn't quite sunk in for her yet what this means and I am anticipating a bad day at school because of it. It's so very hard for me to watch her lose friends and not understand why. She feels she said sorry and all should be forgiven. Though I admit the last fight between them wasn't all my daughter's fault I no have no choice but to request a transfer of classroom's for her. My problem with the whole situation is that we live right next door to them and I am now faced with what to do about her playing outside. They share friends with all the rest of the kids in the neighbourhood and I certainly can't guarantee they won't play together if I let her go outside can I? The only two solutions I can see at the moment are for me to supervise her play outside from now on or keep her inside from now on. Either way it becomes an incredible punishment for ME.

The rest of the day wasn't much better. She stole a notebook computer from an office across the road and took it to school. Fortunately it was an after school program she belonged and returning to computer was easy enough. She suffered consequences there for taking ti and will at home as well. Then after the program ended a friend of mine was to pick her up because I had a meeting to attend tonight (and was in desperate need of a break at this point). Of course that couldn't go smoothly. No No! She had to take off and hide from everbody for nearly half an hour because she didn't want me to go out.

People always ask how I do it. My response as of late is "coffee, cigarettes and a countdown from wake-up to bedtime". Every time my phone rings during the day my stomach cramps and I pick it up with a sense of dread. Sometimes I even chant "please not the school!" to calm my nerves. Truth is, I don't really know, I just do. I have a great support system in place when I do need a night of peace... but the problem is always there afterwards, waiting for me. It's very hard.....

 

*March 15, 2000*

Went for a long walk last night to local mall. Kid was bouncing and complaining all the way there. But by the time we left, what I thought was turning into the walk-from-hell turned into a lovely spectacle of fun. Hubby and kid made use of periodic snowdrifts along to way to have a continuous snowball fight all the way home.! She was worn out and I was nice and relaxed for a change.

March Break hasn't been too bad this round. Usually it's stress, stress stress, but we've had some very good days thus far.

 

*March, 29, 2000*

Well after a week of hell, consultations with my daughters school that solved absolutely nothing she has come down with Chicken Pox. YAY. Doctor says she already done all the infecting she's going to now we just have to wait it out. School says she can't come back until last scab is gone. The Doctor warned me they might insist on that and said most of the schools in town still think it's the '70's. :) What really burns my ass is that the school was aware of the outbreak and didn't bother to tell anyone else. Here, to the best of my knowledge, they are required to inform parents about ANY contagious illness, serious or otherwise, and send home an information sheet so parents know what to look for. I am continually disappointed in the local schools and their performance as professionals. I ge ttreated like i'm a complete idiot, they are constantly NOT informing me of problems then expecting me to accept the blame when nothing is done about them. (it's kind of hard to discipline a child effectively when you don't find out about the incident until two weeks later!!!!) I have set up a communication boo between her teacher and I in the hopes of improving communication. I find out at the meeting they are shocked to find how how much I already knew about but still managed to surprise me once. Now how am I supposed to know what's going on when I'm not there if they don't tell me? I went a bought a pay-as-you-go cell phone with my income tax refund so they could always reach me no matter what. When I informed them they said it was great but then mentioned once again that I am always online. Riiiiight. Mornings, yes. I job search and apartment search online. I am also not the only one who uses the family computer. Nor am I the only one who talks on the bloody phone either. I also heard the comment afterwards that maybe I should check my messages a little more often...it's kind of hard to do that when I'm out paying bills or keeping appointments. Which is why I decided on the bloody cellphone to begin with...DUH...

 

I also have to add another pet peeve to my list. Being woke up by Jehovah's Witness Canvassers first thing in the bloody morning. I support anyone's right to choose their own faith and worship whatever they wish. I DO NOT support canvassing door to door to "save" everyone. ANY religion that needs to browbeat people into believing that they are the ONLY true faith and all others are damned need to give their head a shake, and smell what they are shoveling. Or, maybe my computer is possessed... LOL