No.1 has been studying/sitting GCSE's and has mostly been upset, about my lack of empathy, which she attributes to the fact that I didn't achieve as highly in my exams as she is expected to and my lack of understanding of how the world works 'today'!
In fairness, she does have a point in that the world is a very different place. I'm not entirely convinced it's a better one or that we are enabling our children to 'survive' in it. Let's face it, at school there were always the 'bright spark' academics everyone struggled to relate to, the 'middle of the road could go one way or the other' and the less academic, 'kinetic learners' who could whip the backside off the academics in woodwork.
Problem is there was nothing wrong with that but NOW we're all too PC to say it! Media dictates that we should all be 'intellectual' and no one should read The Sun. I am not suggesting that anyone should read The Sun but surely we should all be allowed to function at a level we feel comfortable with and be valued for the contribution we make. This brings me to the conclusion that, if you do 'fail all the exams' you have to, reevaluate, 'pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again'!
Whilst No.1 has been 'self absorbed' No. 2 has been, 'away with the fairies' and for want of a better phrase, been 'taking the piss'! Two detentions this year, at more inconvenience to me than him, for failing to hand in homework. Come on No.2, if you're going to get a detention at least make it for something worthwhile, like playing truant or gambling! The consequences of not doing homework have facilitated 'Bobby Sands' aka No. 4 having a mega sleep in the car and making meal times and bed times hell on earth! Thanks for that!
Tomorrow is sports day for No.3. Oh how I loathe sports day, I'd rather sit at home and pull my teeth out one by one without anaesthetic. Gone are the days where you practised three legged races and walked up and down the hall at home with an egg on a spoon for weeks before the big day. Now it doesn't matter because there are no winners or losers - 'everyone's a winner'. Thing is, that's not true, not real life. In real life somebody always wins or loses and the sooner you learn that the better. Failure to accept this results in the inability to 'pick yourself up.......'
There is light at the end of the approaching, never ending, summer holidays tunnel, in that Bobby Sands is poised to embark on full time education! I am aware that my shouts of joy may well be heard in outer space and create a cataclysmic event however I DON'T CARE! For six and a half hours of the day my beautiful, anorexic, insomniac will be somebody else's problem, not mine. I really would like to say that I'll be crying at the school gates come September but I won't. I will be singing 'Celebrate good times, come on....' by Kool and th Gang. Oh the joy, relieved of the respobsibility of ONE mealtime with No.4!
I will however say, at this point, that I would never begrudge any teacher their pay (which isn't enough) or holidays because I can not imagine the torment they must suffer. Not only at the hands of the children but at the hands around their throats, of their parents whose expectations are at best, unrealistic and at worst unreasonable.
On that note 'Happy Holidays', 'God bless this ship and all who sail on her'!