I think I have permanently run out of creative things to write, draw, or say, whatever. It's a pretty empty feeling as if my muse suddenly realized she wasn't interested in me anymore, perhaps someone more polished caught her eye. I have sat down to this key board so many times in the last few weeks and could come up with absolutely nothing to say. Nothing has been able to spark an interest in me lately and I'm pretty sure it all stems from my want to be in school right now. I understand that now isn't a good time financially with my husband's new (1 year old) company and with the price of day care for three kids on a one income home, so I will put it off and get a job (once I get my vehicle working properly again) until next year, sock away some cash for the cost of day care or whatever when I am in school and grit my teeth in anticipation until it can finally happen. Did I mention I'm not the most patient person in the world?
I'm still waiting to see if my youngest son will qualify for head-start, if not I will just have to take some of that cash I'm socking away for school and spend it on day care. Ahh, it never ends...does it? On the up side, my other two kids are in school and one is doing their work hole heartedly...the other, not so much. We're working on it. Any tips to getting a lazy kid to do...well, anything? I think we may have to have a teacher swap, his teacher is a bit unaware of personal boundaries and my son doesn't respond well to that, for that matter nether did I when she was right in my face talking to me about my son, she wasn't mean or rude per se, but she really didn't seem to have a clue or care about invading another person's space and that's a big thing for me. My son is quite a bit like me in that when someone invades my space or gets confrontational, I shut down, I have nothing left to say because I tend to get tongue tied and just make a fool of myself so shutting up is a much more dignified recourse for me. I'm not sure that is the logic behind his shutting down, but whatever the reason he does and I have seen first hand how he responds to the teacher. I had to bite my tongue when she literally backed him to the wall (right in front of me) and was only about 10 inches from his face talking to him. I want my children to respect their teachers so I didn't say anything while he was there, but I told her while he waited on me int he hall... (this conversation was on the 5th day of school starting.)
"Well, Ms.H, you are a bit different than any teacher he has had so far."
What do you mean, Mrs. P.?"
"You are a bit more in his face and more out spoken than any other teacher he's had, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job because god knows I don't think I could do it, but his other teachers were firm yet a little more gentle with him, he responded to them differently."
"Well, I have tried to be nice and give him chance after chance to do his work and he just wont do it, I can't allow him to take time away from every other student in the class."
"I agree whole heartedly Ms. H, and I have let E know that his laziness will not be tolerated, we will continue to work with you on this. Thank you for taking the time to see me about him and we will keep a close eye on his daily progress folder for updates."
I continued to do the two-step with her to just keep her at least arms length so she would stop touching my person while the conversation turned to her telling me she thinks he is ADD. I don't know why he isn't willing to do anything for the poor lady, but I know that no matter how tedious or time consuming a project may be here at home if it is something he wants to do or is getting paid to do, he can accomplish it with no problems keeping his mind focused. I'm not saying he isn't ADD and I'm more than willing to have him tested, but I do think that some teachers are all to eager to push drugs on students that pose the least bit of discomfort to the stability or flow of the way they picture their class functioning. I am not and will not ever say that all teachers are this way and I mean no disrespect to any teacher, even for those that I would say diagnose children as ADD or ADHD too quickly, I admire people who have the gift to teach and often wish it were one of my talents as I think that might make parenting easier. I do however believe that there are those few (as in any other profession) that would rather do the easier thing and simply give the child something that will force him to calm down, like it or not. I fear that it's a bad thing to teach children that a pill will cure everything at such a young age, not to mention the fact that once they are on Ritalin or other such drugs they then have to take more drugs to curb the side-effects of the first drug introduced, by the time they are ten years old they're already taking a hand full of pills to make it all go away. Stress, anxiety and having to handle responsibilities or the feeling that go along with not handling them is just a part of life and I don't think teaching our kids to suppress their feelings with drugs is a good thing for their future in a world that is generally full of stress.
Let me go ahead and say that I do think that for some children these drugs are completely necessary, I have known some children that were literally unable to control their need to fidget and this drug help them to become a more stable person without loosing them self in the drug, but I also know others that simply need an outlet, a place to use the talent that is bottled up inside and let it shine, giving the attention or self worth that they need to find and will never find in a pill. I'm not downing medicines I just think they shouldn't be so readily given out to children.
Well, this wasn't supposed to be a soap box rant, but that is what is seemed to turn into...see, nothing creative to write about. Hence my absence in writing, perhaps soon I will have something more interesting to share, until then...Have a beautiful time!
