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too much drama
Sep. 20th, 2017 09:55 amAaarrrghh...I am getting too old for this.
I'm so verklempt it's almost too hard to write this post.
As you know my daughter, her husband and their two little kids ages 7 and 4 moved in with us. We did it because she was having issues at their previous rented house and she didn't want the kids to attend the school in that area anymore. There was no problem with the school per se but it was too far away and a terrible neighbour of hers works there so she was worried that this person might behave in a negative way towards her children.
We wanted them to be able to save up the down payment for a house of their own and that's why we changed everything in our lives so we could accommodate them here.
I don't want this to be a long story and I know that there must always be a period of adjustment in which all parties must strive to make everything run smoothly, but Holy Hannah, did the last two or three weeks have to be so hard?
I am not getting any younger! There's only so much drama and stress I can take!
My daughter is never satisfied. This stems from her chronic depression I know, which she is managing fairly well now, but I remember when she was about eleven I noticed that she just didn't seem happy and tried to explain to her that nothing in life was ever going to be perfect and she would have to try to find the things that did make her feel somewhat good and try to always keep those things with her or around her and try to avoid the things that sent her into a downward spiral.
So the first day at the new school here went well for the 7-year-old boy, but was a disaster for the 4-year-old girl entering junior kindergarten. She threw a tantrum and bit the vice principal when they tried to restrain her. But she is not a biter! That was the first time she ever did that! We were shocked and horrified when we heard about it.
So long story short, my daughter fell out with the JK teacher, had words with her and demanded a transfer to another class. But when she found out all four JK classes were full at 30 kids each, she demanded a transfer to another school! But guess what? All three other schools in the area were also full!
The teacher had suggested to Olivia (my daughter) that there might be something wrong with Jessica - she dared to suggest that she might be "on the spectrum" - and that's a touchy subject with Olivia since Sean was diagnosed with mild autism ten years ago and was transferred into a Special Ed class. Sean seems so normal these days that we are beginning to wonder if there has been too much of a rush to judgement in naming certain kids to be "on the spectrum" over the past several years. It seems to have become somewhat of a trend now. Either that or perhaps certain kids can just grow out of their autism. Sean is going to be 15 soon and he is just like any other boy his age.
So Olivia kept Jessica home for the rest of the week and then asked me to take her to school beginning the week after that, while she took her son to his Grade 2 class.
*sigh*
Of course I caved, being me and wanting to keep the peace, so I took Jessica to her JK class, soothed her while she cried and said she didn't want to go (she wasn't the only one - there were two other little boys who were screaming their lungs out with resistance), apologized to the teacher for what my daughter had said to her, and everything actually worked out OK! One thing - I would never want to be a JK teacher - they are most certainly not paid enough for the work they do and the shit they have to put up with (sometimes literally) every working day.
Besides the teacher there are two ECE's and one teacher's assistant but it doesn't seem enough for a class of 30 little kids!
But this week so far, Jessica has been eager to go to school every day, has made friends and is enjoying everything about it there. We were speaking to the principal and he told us that this class and this teacher were the best ones in the school and very strong advocates for the kids themselves. Good to know.
One problem solved, but there are others. However, I don't want to write about them right now because I'm exhausted! It's hard to find time to do much of anything else and to top it off it's been unseasonably warm here and it's uncomfortable being sweaty ALL the time!
I want to write more, there are stories I still need to finish, etc., etc. but I find I have so much less "me" time than ever before. Am I being selfish? But I do want to do everything I can to help out my kids, without making them become too dependent on me at the same time.
I'm so verklempt it's almost too hard to write this post.
As you know my daughter, her husband and their two little kids ages 7 and 4 moved in with us. We did it because she was having issues at their previous rented house and she didn't want the kids to attend the school in that area anymore. There was no problem with the school per se but it was too far away and a terrible neighbour of hers works there so she was worried that this person might behave in a negative way towards her children.
We wanted them to be able to save up the down payment for a house of their own and that's why we changed everything in our lives so we could accommodate them here.
I don't want this to be a long story and I know that there must always be a period of adjustment in which all parties must strive to make everything run smoothly, but Holy Hannah, did the last two or three weeks have to be so hard?
I am not getting any younger! There's only so much drama and stress I can take!
My daughter is never satisfied. This stems from her chronic depression I know, which she is managing fairly well now, but I remember when she was about eleven I noticed that she just didn't seem happy and tried to explain to her that nothing in life was ever going to be perfect and she would have to try to find the things that did make her feel somewhat good and try to always keep those things with her or around her and try to avoid the things that sent her into a downward spiral.
So the first day at the new school here went well for the 7-year-old boy, but was a disaster for the 4-year-old girl entering junior kindergarten. She threw a tantrum and bit the vice principal when they tried to restrain her. But she is not a biter! That was the first time she ever did that! We were shocked and horrified when we heard about it.
So long story short, my daughter fell out with the JK teacher, had words with her and demanded a transfer to another class. But when she found out all four JK classes were full at 30 kids each, she demanded a transfer to another school! But guess what? All three other schools in the area were also full!
The teacher had suggested to Olivia (my daughter) that there might be something wrong with Jessica - she dared to suggest that she might be "on the spectrum" - and that's a touchy subject with Olivia since Sean was diagnosed with mild autism ten years ago and was transferred into a Special Ed class. Sean seems so normal these days that we are beginning to wonder if there has been too much of a rush to judgement in naming certain kids to be "on the spectrum" over the past several years. It seems to have become somewhat of a trend now. Either that or perhaps certain kids can just grow out of their autism. Sean is going to be 15 soon and he is just like any other boy his age.
So Olivia kept Jessica home for the rest of the week and then asked me to take her to school beginning the week after that, while she took her son to his Grade 2 class.
*sigh*
Of course I caved, being me and wanting to keep the peace, so I took Jessica to her JK class, soothed her while she cried and said she didn't want to go (she wasn't the only one - there were two other little boys who were screaming their lungs out with resistance), apologized to the teacher for what my daughter had said to her, and everything actually worked out OK! One thing - I would never want to be a JK teacher - they are most certainly not paid enough for the work they do and the shit they have to put up with (sometimes literally) every working day.
Besides the teacher there are two ECE's and one teacher's assistant but it doesn't seem enough for a class of 30 little kids!
But this week so far, Jessica has been eager to go to school every day, has made friends and is enjoying everything about it there. We were speaking to the principal and he told us that this class and this teacher were the best ones in the school and very strong advocates for the kids themselves. Good to know.
One problem solved, but there are others. However, I don't want to write about them right now because I'm exhausted! It's hard to find time to do much of anything else and to top it off it's been unseasonably warm here and it's uncomfortable being sweaty ALL the time!
I want to write more, there are stories I still need to finish, etc., etc. but I find I have so much less "me" time than ever before. Am I being selfish? But I do want to do everything I can to help out my kids, without making them become too dependent on me at the same time.
