"Just be cool with me, Mom"

Mondays are always difficult.  I want to sleep and wake up when it's Tuesday, although with my current schoolwork load, I could probably sleep until forever and still be tired.

This week, I started a 4 week series called "Love & Logic."  I realize that it's entirely difficult to be a good parent anyway, and it's even harder when you're going at it alone, and even harder still when you're fighting to undo the "good parenting" your child(ren) receive when visiting their other families.  I tend to jump straight into sarcasm as my defense mechanism, and I realized that it wasn't working for me.  My boys are quick to pick up on the sarcasm, and although that's fine in some cases, the sarcasm was coming back to bite me.  Hard.

Right about the time I realized I was fighting a battle I would never win, B's teacher sent home the "Love & Logic" information along with her testimonial about trying it last year and how great it was.  It's free to DCE parents (my favorite kind of seminar), so I signed up for it.  I expected to see a lot of parents there, but there weren't many.  There were a few I saw who I knew needed to be there (based on what I've seen in my escapades around campus) and there were several I didn't see who probably should have been there.  Still, it started off with a lot of interesting information, and I'm hoping to learn more and utilize it without laughing as life goes on.  We shall see.

I also got a call for a sub job for Friday.  This is uncommon because they typically only come a day or so in advance.  When I heard it was for N's school, I was pumped.  When I heard it was for his Science teacher, I was dejected because I knew he wouldn't be cool with that.  BUT, when I heard it was to chaperone the 7th grade field trip (that I wanted to go on anyway, but N begged me not to chaperone) as a teacher, I was thrilled.  See, N has this teacher in the middle of the day, and the only classes the 7th graders are attending is 1st, part of 2nd, part of 6th and all of 7th.  Our paths wouldn't cross, so I accepted the job rather gleefully.  I might have done the "Breakfast Club" fist pump.  Now I get to go on the field trip AND I get paid to go.  Yes, please!  N eventually agreed, but was visibly horrified when I mentioned chaperoning his field trip.  When I explained that he'd probably be with an entirely different teacher/chaperone he relented but said, "Just be cool with me, Mom."  It still makes me laugh.

It also got me thinking: In elementary, you aren't allowed to sub for your child's class because you'd be in the room with them all day, and I totally get that.  However, I wondered what the rules were about  middle and high school sub assignments because if you can't teach your child's class at all, that's 7 teachers you can't sub for each year, right off the bat.  Luckily, I checked with the coordinator and she said it was at each principal's discretion.  Then she suggested to accept and apologize later, which is totally my mindset on that situation.  So, there you go.  One class period won't kill him.

Although...it's middle school.  So it just might.

Aubs