Thursday, October 25, 2007

Suddenly, She's a C and E Kind of Blogger

I've been writing this week, but I haven't had time to finish and then post. I am behind on responding to emails. Today's post is off the cuff and without edits. It's like being naked, showing all my flawed glory. Enjoy.

I'm frustrated and have blown my stack a few times, luckily, in private. I think part of it is due to burnout at being the only parent a lot lately. My husband's been officiating football games and while it doesn't take much extra time - especially compared to coaching did - it means he has been gone all day on Sunday. I'm glad he did it but I'm so ready for it to be over. I'm tired of being the disciplinarian, struggling to get my child to do what she knows she is supposed to do. Every day, it's the same thing. She acts like a soap star and develops amnesia when it comes to what she should do after school (chores, homework, THEN free time), then suddenly recovers her memory in time to ask to watch "The Simpson's" and oh yeah, what's for dessert?

Also, maybe I've been volunteering too much. I'm at the school three days per week for the mornings. That's really not a lot. Maybe I'm not coping well. I've been annoyed at the kids when they're loud and don't listen, which is all the time.

I haven't talked about what it's like at school yet. I have plenty to say, now. The teacher, who I think is mostly pretty good, does a few things that drive me up a wall and which aren't working well. Today, for example, she made them sit through 20 minutes of instruction. I know, I watched the clock and listened in disbelief as she droned on and on. By instruction, I mean that she told them how to do their assignment, one after the other. I think it would be better at the FIRST GRADE LEVEL to go through things step by step. At the very least, give the kids (six-and-seven year olds!) two or three steps to do and then LET THEM DO IT OR THEY'LL FORGET.

!!!!!!

The teacher is a talker. She talks and talks and talks, and the kids wiggle, and talk to one another, and completely lose track of what they're supposed to do. This is evident when they FINALLY are allowed off the carpet to their desks and immediately ask, "What do we do?" Yeah, I feel for you guys because I have trouble knowing what they're supposed to do, too!

Anyway, now to my daughter. She is doing normal, growing up stuff that is driving me batty. She argues with me, doesn't do what I've asked her to do after three or four requests. At that point, I'm so mad I could spit. I have to remember a lot of things, and I take care of people in this family to keep them on schedule, and I really need to be listened to and for her to do what I say when I say it because there's a good reason why I say it! It sounds like I want a robot, but in this case yeah, maybe I do! Here's what you need to do, now do it. End of story. AGH!!! That's what I need to happen. So often when I remind her of what to do she complains and argues and sighs, and it makes me mad because I think of all that I do to make life good for her and.........oh, I need a vacation. Or a drug habit.

Anyway. Nobody's getting beaten or yelled at (except me, yelling at myself) so it's going to be okay. Eventually. After I run away.

4 comments:

Kristen said...

I'm the bad guy too. I'm tired of it. I want to be the nice guy. Of course, the nice guy lets the kids stay up until 11 and then doesn't see the fallout the next day. Ugh.

Three days a week? You are officially up for sainthood.

Loralee Choate said...

Ug. It sounds like everything is building up on your end. I had this problem when I was volunteering at the school a ton.

I am sorry that everything is in suck mode. It sounds like you need to do something FOR YOURSELF. (Whatever that may be...it could be organizing your sock drawer on your own, ect.)

Occidental Girl said...

Exactly! I want to get involved in a project and not be interrupted to find something for someone. Good grief! You'd think I had a map in my head showing every single object belonging to every person in this family the way they ask me where things are.

At least I am needed, but when it reaches certain great proportions I get a little sick of the whole thing.

Anonymous said...

WHERE HAVE I BEEN? Ack.

I feel for you on the kids arguing with you thing. Because, does it really matter that there are 237 days on the FAKE countdown to halloween calendar instead of the 365 I guessed it might have, because, I don't know, REAL YEARS ARE 365 days? Also, are you really that hungry? Are you dying? Do we live in a hut in abject poverty - to the point where I have not fed you for a week? Please advise.

PS: YOU DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING!

Thank you for donating free rant space. :)