All posts in category School and Kids

Buddy punch …

I am not quite sure how it started, but we play buddy punch when we drive.

The game is fairly simple, has few rules, and has the upside of being able to punch someone at random intervals.

If you spot a Buddy Car (A VW Beetle, old or new model) you get to Buddy Punch anyone in the car. You just scream BUDDY PUNCH and hit them at the same time.

As the driver this can be quite disconcerting as you are merrily driving along, and not really paying attention only to be awoken from your driving-day dream with a punch and a scream.

My kids love the game and play it all the time – even if you are not actually playing, this does not stop you being a target of a punch — this can also happen if you see one on television, so the game never really stops.

This morning Connor gives me a second Buddy Punch, and he is quite pleased with himself.

Georgia got upset as she has not seen any Buddies and did not see the one Connor has just seen either of the two Connor had discovered.

{to assist in picturing the scene} Connor is sitting in the front seat and Georgia is sitting in the back, directly behind him.

Georgia – moaning/whining: “I can’t see because your seat is in the way. I cannot see because YOUR BIG GOOFY HEAD is in the way!”

Jeez Louise I laughed. I cackled, I snorted– it was such a bizarre thing for Georgia to say, totally out of character.

In one small flash of humour I did not mind the 14 years I would spend driving my kids to the same primary school.

Start playing BUDDY PUNCH today, even if no one else has any idea why you are screaming BUDDY PUNCH at them and then hitting them with all your might. {Hitting someone when you have not seen a Buddy or incorrectly identified one results in you getting two punches from who ever you last hit}

Seriously it is a real game, though we have changed the name PUNCH BUG appears to be another name.

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on March 21, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Buddy Punch, games children play, PUNCH BUG, Reluctant Mom, VW beetle car

Posted by reluctantmom on March 21, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/buddy-punch/

28% of South African schoolgirls are HIV positive – FACT

I heard a horrific statistic today. One of those where I go “hey that’s not right … that can’t be right”

At least 28% of South African schoolgirls are HIV positive compared with 4% of schoolboys.

My brain was trying to work out exactly why there was such a variance in the statistics between the boys and girls.

They are having sex with each other, so it should be a bit closer in terms of related figures. The boys shouldn’t be 7 times less likely to be HIV positive that the school girls – they are exposed to the same things and equally at risk. Right?

But it appears I am alarming ill informed. The girls are testing HIV positive, because of the high prevalence of school girls having sex with “sugar daddies!”

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that some pregnant girls – aged between 10 and 14 years of age – also tested positive for HIV.

“[About] 77 000 girls had abortions at public facilities. We can no longer live like that. We want to put an end to it,” he said.

More than five million people in South Africa are HIV-positive – about 10% of the total population. Last year more than 260,000 people with Aids died – almost half the figure of all those who died in the country.

I am astonished. I am disappointed.

My heart dies a bit for what is happening in our country and these girls. I have no idea how to remedy the situation. I have no idea what more our government, HIV Activists, and private individuals/companies can do. At a certain point you do as much as you can, then you need to step back and let people be responsible for their choices and the repercussions. But how does one stand and watch this happen?

How you are infected with HIV is really not a difficult concept to get your head around. Its a really simple message.

I do think that the government and clinics have used an exhaustive campaign to inform the public – the campaign and message has been punted from about 1993/1994, if not earlier.

Why is the message just not getting through?

One in four of our school going girls is HIV positive. That is a horrific statistic. What does this mean for our society and our future?

I am actually not sure who to blame. The school girls? The parents? Society? The sugar daddies? Society as a whole? The unemployment and poverty rate?

I am so alarmed, I am nearly speechless.

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on March 14, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged 28% of South African schoolgirls are HIV positive, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi

Posted by reluctantmom on March 14, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/28-of-south-african-schoolgirls-are-hiv-positive-fact/

My mom sold me ….

I was checking Georgia’s work last night and she had written a story about the recent Fun Day the school had hosted.

I liked the way she wrote I sold her for free chips and a hamburger ……

Rhymes with mice ….

I recall seeing a Facebook post about a week ago referring to lice.

Of course I scratched my head, pretty much like you are doing right now. I took a deep sigh and cast my eyes up towards the ceiling downward lights and said a few words of prayer that went along the lines of ”please please skip our family this year!”

And then I promptly forgot about it.

I noticed Georgia scratch her head on Monday. I felt unsettled.

I noticed on Wednesday that Georgia was scratching her head the entire time she spoke to me. I got in to my car and drove to the 24 hour chemist. No point in waiting another day for the inevitable.

I felt like those slightly insane people who take their arm, and wipe the entire contents of the shelf into their shopping carts with that rather crazed look on their faces.

It was very much like that. I bought two combs, a magnifying glass and a few hundred rands worth of varying lice treatment.

I figured I would hedge my bets and grab everything from the holistic stuff with happy lice on it, to the more deadly looking stuff with cross bones and a skull as packaging, with warnings of anal leakage and not operating heavy farm equipment.

I still had a fair amount of the tea tree lice treatment from last year, but recalled that Contra-Lice had worked like a bomb. I figured lice might build up an immunity, and if I hit them with everything right out the gate.

I immediately started to wonder which kid gave my kid lice!

Wednesday night had me treating all the kids – they had their hair washed with the equivalent of battery acid. Then I sat with a bottle of “lavender oil” and Lice Treatment and combed their hair PAINSTAKINGLY with a nit comb. Each hair gets to move individually through a lice comb, and if you have seen the amount of hair my brood has, you will appreciate this is no easy feat.

I sat them in the lounge, put white paper on the floor so I could see the f*ckers. Of course you hope there will be no lice, you really do.

Unfortunately this is one of those situations where you get MORE than you deserve, truly.

Georgia had a few – Isabelle has a lot – and Connor had none.

I repeated the entire treatment last night, and look forward to doing it tonight again.

And for the next two or three weeks, we get to play Kill Your Lice! Again and again! Ah, the joy of school going children.

Unfortunately I need to admit that it might be MY kids who just gave the entire school lice. I can hear the birthday party invitations being torn up as we speak.

{I guarantee that by the end of this post, you would have scratched your hair at least twice, if not more, especially around your back neck area …….}

13 Comments

by reluctantmom on March 1, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Lice at school, Lice treatment

Posted by reluctantmom on March 1, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/rhymes-with-mice/

High school browsing ….

Connor is in Grade 5.

Though Grade 8 seems like an awfully long way away – the days of arriving at the front gate and pushing your child into which ever school you chose, just does not exist any more.

Or might, and the school system I am familiar with is just making my life challenging.

It is now all about frantic mothers (dads appear to be about as interested in this as they were in attending pre-natal classes) comparing schools in the primary school parking lot, googling until you break a nail, and applying to every school you think MIGHT just be right for your child.

Government schools cannot (technically) keep waiting lists, so they have to let you know in June-August of the year your child is in Grade 7 as to whether he or she is accepted. Problem there is if they tell you that your acceptance has been denied then you are sitting with a child whose primary school career is about to end, and no where to send him.

The schools suggest applying to no less than three!

If you are lucky enough to live in a catchment area of a high school, that of course increases your odds of getting accepted into the school – I believe they have to take you if you fall within the residential zone, unfortunately for us who only have a Woolworths and a Liquor Store, well then you need to start finding a school.

And pronto.

Yesterday the kind folks at Somerset College gave Kennith and I a tour and a little meet and greet. I do not want to say that I would sell my gonads for a place in that school, but I would definitely put Kennith’s on ebay and consider all opening bids.

The school is un-flipping-believable.

I do think that fact that it is surrounded by wine farms does make me even more fond of it than I could already be.

I kept waiting for something horrible to appear. A reason why I would not want to spend a home loan payment per month on a school for my child – I even checked the toilets just in case they had not been using Jeyes fluid.

We were shown around the campus, and I swooned …. the classes were lovely, the hostel facilities were great, the children who we met were friendly polite and you did not get that rather “icky feeling of too rich parents with spoilt horrible children” that one does experience on occasion at schools that cater to those in the slightly higher earning/tax brackets.

When we got back to the car Kennith pipes up: “Is there anything about that school you did not like?”

Unfortunately starting with the creme of schools unfortunately is going to be make viewing the next six a bit of an exercise in : “For the love of gd can we not just send the kids to Somerset College and sell blood and sperm on line to try to afford it?”

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on February 26, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged High School Applications, High Schools in Cape Town, Somerset College

Posted by reluctantmom on February 26, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/high-school-browsing/

The one about lucky number 95!

Connor and Georgia went to the same pre-primary.

I have sung the school’s praises and it is one of those places, that when your child is there, you feel a little bit above the other parents who are not lucky enough to have their kids attend the phenomenal preschool your kids are now at!!

Connor was there. I was lucky that he got in, as this acted as a feeder for the primary school he is in. We are way way out of the catchment area, so I would doubt we would have got in had we applied directly to the primary school. But at that time the pre-school was a feeder to the primary school, so Connor got in to the primary school.

As Georgia arrived and had a sibling, she was pretty much guaranteed the same journey, so it was all pretty easy going.

Isabelle is at a nursery school which I adore. You could actually eat pasta off the toilet seat (to steal my friend’s Joyce’s saying) it is so clean. The Tot Spot is run by Linda Esteves, who has her eye on everything and everyone, and it runs like a well oiled machine.

Best nursery school I have ever been in to (and I have been in to easily 50 at this point in my rather weathered and jaded “find schools for my kids” age bracket). Teachers are lovely, classes are great, there is nothing not to love.

There I was all in love with my kid’s school.

All in love with at the end of this year. Isabelle will be going to the preschool that I love. The other two are in grades in primary school, and there is no school changes for at least two more years.

Really there is so much love around right now, that I could shit a heart banner with string that joins them together. Complete.

Even when I am guaranteed a spot in a school, I do not sit on my laurels. Nope not me. I filled in the application form and get it off in good time.

I got Isabelle’s form off in January 2013 for January 2014.

Good time considering her siblings went there, and that must give her some sort of ”automatic right of passage…” and well clearly just an administration detail we need to do, but clearly not applicable to the likes of me.

I was feeling lots of love until I got this response: “I confirm receipt of Isabelle’s application form. I would just like to mention that I can only accept the first 54 learners. My waiting list starts from nr 55 and Isabelle is nr 95……….”

er ……..I can’t say I am feeling the love right now as much as the panic. Clearly I need to find another school, unless number 95 just got awfully lucky.

Jason Crisp I really thought this crap was over with. But it seems not! Fun I am not having it, and off I go to find a school for next year or I am going to be home schooling, and I am sure we can all guess how well that will end.

{I hope you have applied to what ever school you are hoping to get your Junior or Juniorette into}

8 Comments

by reluctantmom on February 20, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Pre-Primary Applications, Pre-Primary Northern Suburbs, Preschools in Cape Town, School short lists, The Tot Spot

Posted by reluctantmom on February 20, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/the-one-about-lucky-number-95/

The one about the cricket coach ….

I fetch Connor yesterday from school and he is looking really flushed and just bleak.

I assume it is because it is about 36 degrees and he has been playing sport. But there is something about him that just looks off.

I let the girls walk on to the car, and walk next to Connor and ask him how the game went.

He played a cricket match today – Connor does not actually play cricket, but his tennis had been cancelled last week, so he went along to cricket practice and they asked him if he would play in a cricket match today.

I think Connor is already over stretched with his sport commitments and cultural commitments, but he wanted to play, and I agreed as long as it did not encroach on his existing commitments.

He says his team lost, and appeared to lose by quite a large margin — I don’t play cricket, I am not sure if it is 2 – 0 or 67 – love or what ever.

The point is they lost, and it was by quite a large margin.

I am still not following why Connor is SO DRASTICALLY upset. Connor plays tennis and does not win each game, and he is always a good sport about it -very much in the mould of ”I will practice harder and play that boy again and then try and win….”

We are walking and he is upset to the extent that he is crying and cannot get the words out. I stand with him and wait until he can form words that I can understand. Eventually it comes out that the cricket coach screamed and swore at him (I am not sure if he swore and screamed at the entire team, so I am not talking on behalf of them just the interaction with my son).

Though I swear like a drunk trooper, Connor’s language usage is as clean as the day is long. He doesn’t swear. So he is trying to tell me what the coach said without swearing and in resorting to drawing the words in the air with his imaginary pen finger.

I eventually get to the essence and that the coach swore at him and said “fuck” in what ever context it is used in school boy cricket. At the end of the game Connor asked the coach for the score and got the response: “blah-blah-blah …. you are shit!”

Connor is devastated. I am livered. I am so angry I could actually make a sign, or post a Facebook status update!!

It was too late to phone the school, so I spent the remainder of the evening stewing about it. I found the headmaster’s email and sent a note to him. But this morning when I opened my bleary eyes, I re-thunk that plan and phoned to set up a meeting with the headmaster.

Listen, I have no idea how exciting cricket games can get, but an adult swearing at my son and telling him he is “shit” well that is maybe a bit more excited than I need an adult to be who works with kids.

We have a 10h30 appointment with the headmaster.

10 Comments

by reluctantmom on February 14, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged cricket at school, School and Kids, sport at school

Posted by reluctantmom on February 14, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/the-one-about-the-cricket-coach/

High Schools in Cape Town … the fun we are having it.

The day has come, I always knew it would.

In my mind Connor is still a little boy.

As I watch him stretch out on the couch with his ~~beer~~ oros I am amazed by how much he has crossed over that line of little boy, and is on his way to big boy. He takes up the entire damn couch. He eats like a wrestling team on steroids and he has taken to “inheriting” my shoes – and I am not exactly a small foot.

He gets embarrassed when undressing – and hides inside his cupboard if he is worried someone will come barging in. Screams at his sisters if they try to walk in to the bathroom when he is on the toilet, and begs to shower separately. The idea of him whipping off his shirt so I can see if something fits, horrifies him.

I am in denial, so get a bit cross and scream: “Just shower with the girls, what is wrong with you?”

But there is nothing wrong, he is growing up. He is at that stage where he just needs his privacy.

I live in fear that there is going to be THAT day where I barge into his room, only to discover he is doing a bit of self-exploration and then I will probably die a thousand deaths right there.

I still try to have frank conversations with him about his body and s.e.x and girlfriends and all of those things which are just going to get creepy uncomfortable over the next 12 – 24 months.

Twelve to twenty four months — that is not a long time, that is a blink in the time line of a child. Its not even long enough to make a dent in a car payment.

Talking about 24 months, Connor will be ready for Grade 8 in 2016.

Yep, sounds like forever away doesn’t it? Not so much. This year I need to visit Open Days, then apply this year (for some schools) to get on waiting lists, or next year for others.

Schools are going to be sending out “approval of acceptance” whilst he is in Grade 7 (2015) and probably before May of that year. There really there is not a huge amount of time to sit around and think long deep thoughts about school.

Kennith prefers to lie on the couch, shrug, change channels and give me the look of ”really you are freaking out about nothing here” look when I decide to bring it up. Kennith’s frame of reference is that the kids just appeared to go to a school, he does not know of the weeks/months of searching to vet a school, and then the amount of begging involved in them allowing you in.

In the Grade 7 talk that I sat in to by accident, the key point conveyed was to apply to more than one school. Three (and be accepted in two) if possible, so that you are not sitting come end of 2016 with no school for 2017. This appears to be a common “need for an emergency meeting with the principal” of several Grade 7 learners and their parents.

I am not sure if 2016 and 2017 sound like they are miles away to you … to me, they sound like they are 2 or 3 Xmas cards away, and considering I am behind from about 1986 in sending Xmas cards in time, it appears frightfully close.

I sat today making a list of 6 potential high schools – and applied to them to find out when their Open Day is going to be, and whether we could pleased/beg come along.

I sent an email which I hope gives the impression that I am sort of disinterested in their school, and easy going either way. I needed to hold myself from putting one of those smiley faces that pray and close their eyes at the end of my email.

The problem (of which there are many) is that I need to evaluate a school now for the child he is going to be then. The option of waiting to see what sort of kid he is in Grade 7 and then make a decision is just not available.

I had to make my own list of Cape Town’s Top 10 Schools.

I did use the fact that they had boarding school as a criteria. I really would like the kids to attend a school with boarding facilities so they can be weekly boarders in High School. But to be honest, right now I just need to find a school that will accept my child.

Tell me again how quickly our children grow up! Cheese and rice where does it all go?

1 Comment

by reluctantmom on February 1, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Applying to Cape Town Schools, Applying to High Schools, Cape Town High Schools, Grade 8 Applications

Posted by reluctantmom on February 1, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/high-schools-in-cape-town/

New Year … over enthusiastic parent ….

Last year I felt I was permanently on the back foot with regards to the kids and keeping up with their school work and school commitments.

I realised both Connor and Georgia make for hopelessly poor postman.

I don’t get notes in time. I never seem to know what is going on, and most of the time I miss the notice about an oral, homework or something they have to bring to school.

I will confess that I also did not go and search out the information. I used the theory of “if the kids don’t give me the right stuff, then they are going to miss out, and then it is their fault and that is just the way it is…”

I made a realisation this year. I need to be more involved with the kids. The less involved I am, the less involved they will be at school. The less involved they are at school, the more opportunities they will miss out on. The more they miss out on, will mean the poorer their school career is going to be.

The habits we teach them now about going to school prepared and with the right material, is the habits they are going to have in high school when things are much harder and they need to be more prepared than they are now at primary school.

I felt I needed to step up in the parenting department and start taking a more active role. I need to be a pushier parent, instead of the sloppy parent I have been up to now.

I really do not enjoy “socializing with other parents” or going to school things.

My social awkwardness escalates and I find it all very stressful, but I am acutely aware that Connor is in Grade 5 and before I blink he is going to be in Grade 7. Then I am going to be trying to get him into High Schools, and then kicking myself for not motivating him earlier.

This year, I have attended parent/teacher meetings. Made sure I ask the right questions, and if I don’t know then I send an email to the school for clarity. (I even attended one incorrect one, so found myself sitting in a meeting for parents of Grade 7 children … on the upside, I feel quite psyched for Grade 7 and know how to start preparing!)

The kids have schedules drawn up and have been signed up for groups that I usually miss, because they are full by the time I wake up and realise I need to sign up for them.

The kids are enrolled into sports and cultural activities. I have the name of the teacher who organises the eisteddfod, and I am on that to prepare the kids.

If something is sent home, I action it that evening, and do not leave it over until the next day.

I have jotted all the things I need to do, and what the kids need to attend for the next term.

By being a bit more involved, I do not feel so panicky and out of control, like I felt for a large portion of last year.

We have decided to have two evenings a week as no television nights – the kids can do homework, extra reading, or something else that does not require a computer screen, DS screen or a television screen.

Part of the reason I wanted to be able to “work for myself” was so that I am more available for the kids at school this year.

I do not necessarily want to have them at home with me in the afternoon. But I do want to ensure that if there is a thing I need to go to, or a practice I want to watch, or match they need to be taxi’d to, that I am available and can attend.

On my list of things to do this week, is to look at open days for High School!!

How the hell does this come around so quickly? I am still amazed some days that Connor no longer needs me to breastfeed him, and wipe his bum …. I know it is a cliché, but seriously it is like a blink of an eye and then they stand before you asking to borrow the car keys, and you wonder where it all went!!

6 Comments

by reluctantmom on January 30, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged bluntcards, bluntcards kids back at school, Cape Town schools, eisteddfod, kids back at school, School going kids

Posted by reluctantmom on January 30, 2013

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/near-year-over-enthusiastic-parent/

Georgia is not likely to win “So you Think you can Dance” ….

Georgia does dance at school.

To be honest, I think it is because I would like her to dance. I can’t dance. I have zero co-ordination.

I dance when I have had too much to drink, and then the lack of co-ordination feels very co-ordinated. But based on the recent photographic evidence, the reality is something quite frighteningly different.

I think Georgia would prefer to sit quietly at a table and cut up paper into small pieces, for hours.

I have struggled to find a sport/activity that Georgia enjoys. She starts most things with a certain measure of enthusiasm and that seems to peter out by week three. About the same time I paid the yearly subs and bought her the entire outfit.

We have worked through Art, Swimming, Karate, Netball, Tennis, Athletics, Computers (I think she still goes to this) and Dance.

Around the middle of last term she started making sounds to indicate she was not interested in doing dance any more.

I am a bit exhausted by the way my kids flit in and out of things. Back in my day you started something and you stayed in it come hell or high water. Enjoying your extra mural was not a necessary criteria for you attending – you just attended and did the best you could, and smiled for the end of year photo!

Bleeding stump and heart ache were irrelevant – you agreed to an extra mural you went the hell along until the year ended, and that was about all the discussion there was on the matter.

I suggested Georgia try to remain in dance until the end of the year.

I figured once she got some of the basic steps down, then she might enjoy it a bit more. She has specifically asked not to do sport/extra murals if it includes running, as she falls.

Difficult to find an activity without running, and the school no longer offers Darts as an extra mural.

Georgia used to like Dance and would often perform impromptu dance recitals – usually whilst I was at Woolworths or Pick ‘n Pay.

Kennith fetched her the other day and she was pretty bleak about doing dance. Of course Kennith did the “But honey if you were unhappy why didn’t you tell someone” bit, to which she responded: “I did, I told mom …. and she made me carry on!”

I sheepishly nodded that I wanted her to stick with it. Kennith has no qualms about forcing her to do an extra mural, but he draws the line at an extra mural he has to pay for.

Today I was looking at the “end of year dance concert” time-table, which translates into hours of waiting around so my child can stumble on the stage dressed like a reindeer and be hidden somewhere in the back. {Lets ignore the 3 – 4 other Saturdays they have already had to go to school so they can practice this dance concert.}

I really am not one of those parents who gets all frothy mouth and starry eyed about their children in concerts. I feel very little in the way of excitement. I think when your child has been a tree or a rock in a school concert, the excitement sort of passes for you.

There is something soul-destroying about spending 2 1/2 hours watching random children move across a stage, whilst sitting and freezing to death in an auditorium, to see my child for 3 minutes or 45 seconds. This entire process has made me less than excited about this entire song-and-dance thing. On stage. With a back track and bad costumes.

There are already two full days which can be written off totally to this “dance concert” …. which is all and good, assuming my child was the principal ballerina and would be breaking her moves centre stage.

But she will be dressed as a reindeer. And judging by her present dance level will be hidden somewhere in the back behind the tree and the rock.

I just cannot face the hours and hours waiting around backstage and usually in freezing cold at some point so my child can dance with full costume and antlers.

Cheese and rice I won’t be able to recognise her. She does not want to dance. She has already told me how stressed she is about doing this concert in front of hundreds of people.

I will confess, I have an overwhelming urge to tell the dance teacher she can keep the money for the costume, and excuse Georgia from this Dance of the Stars at Xmas Time … or what ever it is called. One less reindeer is not going to change the world ….

3 Comments

by reluctantmom on October 30, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged dance at school, extra murals

Posted by reluctantmom on October 30, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/georgia-is-not-likely-to-win-so-you-think-you-can-dance/

Another classic FAIL parenting moment ….

Connor has tennis and cross-country on a Monday.

I yell about him packing his school bag and preparing his bag for the morning, the night before.

But experienced parenting, and starting to lose the will to fight the recurring parent fight of “HAVE YOU PACKED YOUR ________ {INSERT CORRECT ITEM}?” and then to repeat the same thing at least 5 times in one evening, because each time Connor will go: “No Mom, thanks I will go do it now….”

And then he gets distracted by a shiny bauble and does not do the think and then I have to shout/ask/beg/plead: “HAVE YOU PACKED YOUR ________ {INSERT CORRECT ITEM}?”

At some point in the evening I was so tired and sore (I was not feeling well) and wanted to take some medication, a large hot water bottle, and go and have a lie down, I went to set out the kids things for the morning, pack the bags and then just go to bed.

The fight for me was over, I was at the point of, I will just do it myself.

I go and collect Connor from school today, and true as nuts he has two left shoes on. I packed him the left shoe from two very similar looking grey takkies.

Connor did tennis to the absolute mirth of his tennis coach, and then proceeded to do cross-country in his two left takkies.

{please do not send me a parenting tip on how to persevere and that when I give in, then he never learns ….. please please please …. this is not a great week/month for parenting tips…. it is a great week if you want to come over and do it for me …. then come on over ……. sleep in required …..}

8 Comments

by reluctantmom on August 21, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Fail Parenting Moments, Parenting Fail, School and Kids

Posted by reluctantmom on August 21, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/another-classic-fail-parenting-moment/

Maybe my child has a hearing issue …. {breath in … breath out … try not to panic}

I had an audiologist appointment with Isabelle today. If you have never been to an audiologist (with a child) basically you get put into a 3 x 3 x 1.5 metre room that is sound proof. Audiologist sits in front of the room (front of the room has a glass window) she has speakers in the room which she controls.

Sounds are emitted from the speakers and based on your child’s reaction she assesses whether your child has normal, or below normal hearing. I assumed the last bit, I actually have no idea how it works, but there is a monkey with a tambourine in one corner and a duck with a trumpet … I think that if these items are part of your standard work-tools, well that commands a certain level of respect right there.

To say it did not go well, does not quite hint at the extent of it. I figured that if she was going to use an interesting sound like “white noise” well what do you expect. Isabelle showed little to no reaction to the sound – even when it was loud enough to make me wince.

She was totally absorbed in her building-blocks game, and the fact that there was noise blaring out of the speakers on either side of her head, showed little in the way of interest for her.

She did react when the audiologist put through sounds that she created “b – b -b - b – b ….. ” and “d -d - d- d ….” and then went back to her blocks, not really interested/reacting to the other sounds.

Audiologist was not exactly brimming confidence, and asked if we would not mind going to see an ENT. Today. She miraculously she got us an appointment. I looked at the sheet she sent with us, and I really cannot fathom much, but there are little marks on a grid/graph and then a dotted line which I assume is the “normal/ideal” range, and Isabelle appears to be miles away from it on the graph.

ENT guy said, hmmmm, and again not in a “hey, yippeeee” kind of tone, more in a “okkkkkaaaaay, this is not ideal” sort of way. He said there was a build up of wax deep in her ear canal, which he removed with the aid of something not dissimilar to a crochet hook. Isabelle was calm and did not flinch, so I was hoping her good behaviour got her some points.

He relooked and he said that there is thick liquid trapped behind her ear drum, and that more than likely this is causing the poor hearing, and may be the cause of her inability to communicate, as she cannot hear.

I tried to explain that maybe it was because Isabelle has been a bit off for the last week, and her nose is runny and maybe that is it.

Dr ENT tried to explain that sure it might be, but unless I have had her hearing tested there is no way to know whether the fluid has been there a week or for a year. I had never had her hearing tested – even as a newborn.

Dr ENT said that we could go one of two options. 1. Treat with Cortisone, and reassess in 6 weeks to see if the fluid has drained. 2. Make an appointment and fit grommits.

I commented that I thought grommits were a bit invasive for a child who has never been to a paed, let alone an ENT. Isabelle is +3 and she has probably had two courses of antibiotics in her life, one of those I requested as a preventative response.

Crikey, general anaesthetic to fit grommits, which might, assuming it does not go well, leave scar tissue on her ear drum membrane which in itself could lead to hearing loss. Grommits which may in their design cause ENT issues that we have never had before.

I am one who is usually reluctant to follow main stream medicine and doctor recommendations, but this one came out of left field. We discussed pro’s and con’s and I sat there feeling that his recommendation was to go with grommits. His logic was why waste more time where she can’t hear – go in, sort it out and then look at the results.

I opted to go with the Cortisone, and to wait 6 weeks and then retest and see where we are. I have nothing against grommits, really I think they are the answer to kids with ENT issues – Connor was an ENT child, and we had 3 sets fitted.

But the entire thing just felt a bit jarring as a first step option.

So the short answer is, yes, Isabelle is no hearing at the correct level. Is it the reason her speech is so far behind/lagging, I am not sure.

I have a speech assessment appointment next week, I have booked a follow up with ENT guy for the first week of September. I will book a retest with the audiologist after ENT guy has taken a look.

If the fluid has not drained then the only option is to go straight to grommits.

I realise grommits are really pedestrian, everyone and their neighbour’s dog has them, but the idea of subjecting Isabelle to any surgery, unless I am 100% convinced there is no other option, then I would like to hold back a while and think about it a bit.

{PS: I do kick myself that I did not do a hearing test as a routine thing when she was 2 years old!!! I feel this was a huge over sight on my part and had I had it checked out then, we may well be quite a few giant steps ahead than where we are right now. Don’t you just heart mother guilt? Like with wreckless abandone.}

10 Comments

by reluctantmom on August 7, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Audiologist test, ENT for Children, Grommits, Kid's Hearing Test, Mommy Blogger 2012, Reluctant Mom

Posted by reluctantmom on August 7, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/maybe-my-child-has-a-hearing-issue-breath-in-breath-out-try-not-to-panic/

Leaky fish tank and other emergencies ….

Me sitting re-editing 400 images I already edited, but made a photoshop 101 error on, so I am sitting and redoing the editing, and not exactly loving every moment. Editing once is fine, editting the same thing again because you are a tosser, really is somewhat unsatisfactory.

Phone rings.

Me: “Hello….”

Little voice: “Hello Mommy…”

Me: “Hi Connor, what’s up my boy…?”

Connor: “Mom, are you busy?”

Me: “Er, a little bit, what’s up Connor?”

Connor: “My fishing tank in my class has a leak, can you go to the pet shop and buy another one, and bring it to school now?”

Me: “errr…..”

Connor: “Please Mommy….. please …….”

Me – wondering how to argue with the fact that he knows I am not working. He knows I am at home, he has a fish tank leak, which I can offer little in the way of advise for. Can I actually say NO when he is obviously speaking on his teacher’s cell phone with her and all the kids listening?

The short answer is I went to buy a fish tank, a cover and some pebbles and delivered it to Connor’s school within 45 minutes of his call.

So that gets me a Mommy of the Week Award.

The part where I lose it, is that I had his teacher’s name wrong (not slightly, totally wrong). So could not find her class (as I had never attended a teacher-parent meeting clearly).

Fortunately only managed to find Connor’s class because he was standing at the front of the class and I was looking through the little glass window in the class room door.

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on May 23, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids, Uncategorized

Posted by reluctantmom on May 23, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/leaky-fish-tank-and-other-emergencies/

School mornings and misplaced school bags …..

Arrive at school with kids this morning – kids bale out, Connor grabs his school bag and says the usual “love you mommy, bye”

I look at Georgia and she is looking into the car and there is no school bag.

I look at her, I look at the empty car and ask “Georgia, where is your school bag?”

Georgia: “er, I think I left it in the tv room….”

Me = sighs heavily and looks at her with the exasperation I often am confronted with when dealing with Georgia and her inability to “just get with the programme.”

The school bell rings, and the kids go off to class. Georgia sans bag, and with a total lack of concern that has forgotten her school bag at home.

I stand and wonder if I should just leave her bag at home to teach her a valuable lesson about “remembering things” and then I think of the teacher’s face as Georgia tells her she has left her bag at home, and I am shamed in to going back to fetch it and take it back to her.

I go home and there is her bag – standing in the middle of the kitchen. Just to further set the scene, I have had Isabelle going bezerk in the backseat as I did not take the turn to her school when I usually do, so she has been screaming in the back seat as she thought she was not going to be going to school. And because she was screaming so much she could not hear me trying to explain to her that I am just going via home and then will take her to school.

I am quite looking forward to my kids going to boarding school so these problems are no longer my problem. {sigh}

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on May 21, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Posted by reluctantmom on May 21, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/school-mornings-and-misplaced-school-bags/

When the talking never stops ….

Georgia can talk the hindlegs of a donkey.

The donkey will willingly give up his hindlegs in the hope that she will stop. I often hope I could be a donkey when she starts talking, just so I could walk off and go and eat grass or something.

Driving home yesterday, Georgia started the story based on the fact that her plaster had come off her knee. She wanted to keep the old plaster, get a cardboard box, paint the plaster and turn into into grass, and cut out a tree, and make a house …… and…blah blah … blah …. cow and ……and…blah blah … blah …. another house and…blah blah … blah …. princess….. and…blah blah … blah …. and it went on and on and on …….

I had no idea that an old tattered plaster had this much story in it.

Eventually, after the blood started seeping out my ears I said: Georgia, Georgia, Georgia ……GEORGIA! When do you stop talking …. for goodness sake, you have not stopped since I put you in this car …… when do you stop?

Georgia: When my story is finished ………. and then I will get a box and cut out a tree and…blah blah … blah ….

5 Comments

by reluctantmom on April 20, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Driving with the kids

Posted by reluctantmom on April 20, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/when-the-talking-never-stops/

Driving kids back from school ….

I have lamented this subject before — not too long ago, but cheese and rice seriously I cannot be the only parent who feels that this is really the short end of the stick. This is the stimoral that gets stuck in the pubic hairs shit end of the deal.

I collect the kids from school most days.

Most days I get about 2 minutes into the drive home with them, and then I already start wondering if I drove headlong in to traffic, could I die, but they live? I do not necessarily want to off them, but sure as shit I want to make it a sure thing that I do not want to spend an hour inside a car’s interior with three kids screaming.

Today’s things to fight about – included, but were not limited to:

1. Isabelle found easter eggs in her bag and ate them.

2. Georgia started screaming because she wanted easter eggs and there were none in her bag.

3. Isabelle threw the foil paper on the floor, I screamed at her, she screamed at me – she won.

4. Georgia was upset that her flip-flop had ended up between Isabelle and Isabelle’s car door – and wanted me to get it back. How the shoe got from Georgia’s foot to the other side of the car is a mystery. I was attempting to navigate through peak hour traffic, so was somewhat distracted. Georgia screamed she wanted her shoe back, Isabelle screamed as she did not want Georgia’s shoe on her side of the car.

5. Connor sniffed incessantly. I passed him a tissue.

6. Georgia explained to me that she no longer wanted sandwiches for school, she wanted other snacks – I explained to her that she needed to take this issue up with her father as he was now stocking the “goody cupboard.”

7. Connor explained he had a headached and continued to sniff.

8. Georgia asked if we could stop dinner half way and then give her medicine, and then continue to eat supper.

9. Isabelle was holding up her spare pair of khaki shorts, which I packed in her school bag, and screaming at me. I have no idea why, but she was screaming, and I kept yelling back YES, YES, YES, and still am unclear what it is that she wanted to show me.

10. Connor asked me if I had anything to drink in the car, he was hot and thirsty. I explained my bar fridge had not been fitted as yet, but I was making a plan as we spoke.

11. Georgia was complaining she could not open the window and it was Connor’s fault. Connor was feigning innocence – LOUDLY.

12. I think that Isabelle was trying to show me the butterfly embroidery on her khaki shorts – I started to scream BUTTERFLIES YES, BUTTERFLIES YES ….. I am not sure exactly what it was that I was meant to be saying.

The thing is that the car drive with the kids finishes me off - like totally fucking kills me.

I pick them up and always plan “this day will be different” but before I have safely navigated out the school gates it all starts, and then I totally lose the plot.

I know there is a law against using cell phones whilst driving, but clearly who ever made that law has not been a mother in a car full of children. Trust me, talking on a cell phone would be the least of my problems, if only the kids would be quiet long enough so I could hear what the person was saying on the other end.

FML!

11 Comments

by reluctantmom on April 13, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Posted by reluctantmom on April 13, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/driving-kids-back-from-school/

Checking your backseat ….

Several years ago (2006 if I remember correctly) there was a particular horrific incident where a professor, Dr Andrew Wilkinson, had his infant son (17 months old) in the back of his car, and forgot to drop him off at school. The child had fallen asleep and was quiet, so the father did not hear him.

Normally the child would go to his grandparents, but this particular day Dr Wilkinson was meant to drop the child off at creche – it was a different routine, and whilst he was driving to work, he slipped into “routine gear….” {I am doing this on memory, so I may be a bit off with the details}

On arriving at the university, he locked the car, and went to work as he usually did, not realising his son was still in the car. It was unfortunately a hot day – around 26 degrees, and the temperature inside the car would have climbed to between 40 – 50 degrees. The car was parked outside in a parking lot at the university.

It was a terrible story, with a tragic outcome.

I remember the incident clearly and probably think of that professor, that infant and the mother who had to bear that news, probably once a week.

It made me realise how often we slip in to “routine” and stop thinking about what we are doing.

You drive the same route to work, you park in the same spot, you follow the same procedure when you lock up and grab your stuff to dash to the office.

I have often been driving to one place, and then “wake up” at a point and realise I was driving to another, as I was doing my normal routine, and my mind had switched off.

We all do it …. fortunately we do not all have the tragic outcome.

Because of 1996, I check my car EVERY day in case I have forgotten a child in the backseat. I actually double-check every day.

When I leave my kid’s schools I glance in the backseat to make sure they are not there. I do not glance in the mirror, I actually swivel my head around and look at each of their seats.

When I get home to work, I consciously look around to check again that they are not in the backseat, and I have not noticed. I mentally take note, and mentally take a quick tally. Kids: 0 – check!

A simple oversight resulted in the worst possible outcome, and left a family hurt, scarred, distraught and a little boy dead.

I really am not in the mind of “good things have come out of that incident” as I feel the price paid was too much for what ever “good” might have come out of it.

I wonder how many other people were effected by that story, and how many other parents now “double-check” just to be sure that they have not left a child in the backseat.

I cannot imagine how that family was effected – I am not sure I could recover from that – I am glad the media appear to have left them in peace.

15 Comments

by reluctantmom on March 8, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Dr Andrew Wilkinson, Dropping kids at school, School and Kids

Posted by reluctantmom on March 8, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/checking-your-backseat/

When the teacher calls ….

I am wondering how many times I need to reiterate this issue.

If my phone rings and I see that it is my children’s teacher/nanny/carer I die a little. My heart races, my breathing gets shallow, I start to picture the worst possible scenario. Usually involving one (or all) of my children, blood and possibly a paramedic.

I visualise kids floating face down in pools, television sets that have fallen on my kids, my kids abducted by someone, my children dead on a play ground.

I never.NEVER.never think this is a friendly how-do-you-do call. Why do teachers/carers not get this?

I had just trained Pepe to start any conversation, should she phone me with “Isabelle is fine, no one is hurt …..” and then she can say pretty much anything after that.

Yesterday Connor’s aftercare phones. They can’t reach me, they phones Kennith.

They open with: “Are you Connor’s father?”

Kennith: “Yes…”

School: “Your son has been involved in an accident at school, and hurt his neck…”

And then they stop talking — you know, to allow some time for the message to sink in.

This allows sufficient time for your mind to infuse with every paranoid thought it has ever had. Your nerves bristle, your body floods with adrenaline and fear, and your bowels loosen.

As it turns out, Connor had tripped over a pipe, he had fallen off a step, and his neck had taken the full brunt of his full body weight. Somehow his head had managed to fold itself into his chest so his neck could whack the tar with his full body weight and the momentum of his running.

It could have been very serious, fortunately it was not.

When I fetched Connor, he had a few scratches and I could see as soon as I was able to talk to him, that his neck was sore, but it was not serious or something that dinner and bowl of ice cream would not cure. He was sitting, conscious and clearly had not sustained a serious injury.

Would have been fabulous had the school communicated that on the phone.

Do you know what it is like to drive to your kid’s school after a call of “your child has hurt their neck, I think you should come….” ?

If you are a teacher or at any stage responsible for caring for a person’s child – please, as soon as the person answers open with: “Hello Kate/Bill/Mrs XYZ, your child is fine – there is no blood, no one is hurt, no one is dead, your child is fine. I am looking at him/her, she/he is smiling and happily colouring in …. everything is fine … really… calm down … breath, breath, breath ….. okay? Again nothing is wrong, Connor/Georgia/Isabelle is fine ….. brilliant in fact. You okay? Good. Okay, the reason I am calling is that we would love you to sell hotdogs at the fete, can you do a shift from 1 – 3pm?”

Do teachers actually know what they do to parents with these calls?

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on March 7, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Phoning Parents, Reluctant Mom, Teacher Calls, Teachers

Posted by reluctantmom on March 7, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/when-the-teacher-calls/

When your kids are not mainstream kids …

I had a conversation with my friend Karen that reminded me of an issue I have with regards to Georgia and her fitting in to a main stream school situation.

Georgia is a “creative” children – not in the way that she does glorious pieces of art, but just that her mind does not function along the set paths – she struggles to follow “main stream” rules and she likes to talk about Smurfs as if they REALLY do exist.

Connor is a main stream child. He likes rules. He likes set parameters. He likes you to give him clear boundaries and off he will go. He is creative and a content soul, but he like his world to be presented to him clearly – and then he is happy to conform – thrilled in actual fact.

Georgia likes to run around with a bucket on her head!

Georgia is not naughty or disobedient, though she often makes me want to hit my head against a brick wall – repeatedly – because she does not “listen” to me.

She just functions in her own little world.

She cannot be “punished” in the established manner. If you gave her a hiding, she would be traumatized, but would be doing the thing you just told her not to do in three minutes time with no clue as to why you appear somewhat exasperated!

You can give her time out, but she will make up a little game in her head, and you will come back in the room, she may still be on the chair, but she is far away as the lead character in her little fairy story she has made up.

Georgia is not really aware of what you are doing, as it has very little to do with what is going on in her world. The result is that you being happy/sad/annoyed, has little or no effect on her. Whether I speak to her nicely or I scream the instruction, it has absolutely no effect on whether she is going to follow the instruction and the speed at which she reacts, or does not.

You can take tv/dessert/nintendo or what ever away from her – she really does not mind.

At the moment she has three big loves in her life.

1. Her doll named Chocolate. Who is not a doll, but her daughter. I need to be on the look out for a plastic dark chocolate coloured boy who may be the father,

2. Her Smurfs. She is obsessed with her smurfs and plays hugely involved games with the figurines for hours.

3 Her bedroom door has to be closed – she cannot function if her door is not closed, whether she is in the room or not, if her door is opened and she is in the kitchen and hears her door opening, she goes totally “ape sh@t” – to put not too blunt a term on it.

This year I have her in a government/main stream school. I wanted to see “how it goes” as I was not convinced it was actually a feasible option for her.

So far she appears to be doing well, and really enjoying her class.

I got a call earlier today from her teacher to say that Georgia is doing really well, adjusted and paying attention in class .. this was of course after I had a nervous breakdown when my caller ID’d the number …. teachers and schools should legally be compelled to start all conversations with parents as: “Your child is fine, no one is bleeding, no one is dead … your child is fine …. can I carry on or do you need to take a few deep breaths into a brown paper bag?”

I am really thrilled she is doing well – I will confess that I anticipated the worst. She loves her teacher. Loves her class. Loves her aftercare. Really LOVES her day at school.

I can’t tell you the weight that lifted from me when I did some maths in the car with Georgia and she could do the maths (6 + 2 stuff, not how many oranges does the bus driver need if he drives from Transkei to Cape Town on 26 December?).

I know my child is a bit different, and at the same time I am glad I did not need to implement “extreme” measures and she seems to be adapting well (for now)

Maybe when her teacher asks all the children to make clay snakes, and Georgia decides that she does not want to make a clay snake, and will instead make a clay butterfly – and point back refuses to make a clay snake, then maybe we can have another discussion.

I do think though that the majority of people my age come from a school system where we all “made the clay snake when instructed” and did not question the motives of the teacher or the system.

We did we were instructed en-masse and then just hoped we would pass and not get detention.

I do feel teachers and doctors are quick to suggest Ritalin as a way to “control individuals or have them conform.”

I am not really for or against Ritalin (actually I am more against….) I have not read enough on the subject to have an informed opinion. My opinion is shaped by the “hysterical” media reports I have read, so that is hardly a balanced opinion – but medicating a child to make it easier for the teacher to control the group does have some inherent problems.

I am not sure of how the future will be for Georgia. I am not sure if it will include clay snakes, butterflies and smurfs, but I do want her to stay as “wacky and bizarre” as she is … I would also like her to listen to me, but I am sensing there may be easier things to wish for.

If it means finding a school or a school system that caters for her “specialness” at a later stage, well then I will cross that bridge when I get there.

I would like my daughter to get the best out of her schooling, but I do not want her schooling to break her to mould and shape her. I’d like my daughter to be left in tact to dream about fairies and smurfs, and magic… sans-medication!

7 Comments

by reluctantmom on February 28, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged Attention Issues, Reluctant Mom, Ritalin

Posted by reluctantmom on February 28, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/when-your-kids-are-not-mainstream-kids/

Am I the only one wanting to run away from this year?

What the hell happened? No seriously, what the hell happened to this year.

It is the first week of February and I feel like I have already been beaten by a rather larger, heavy and wet stick.

I am totally stuffed, and it is only the first week of February. I have already suggested that I need a (several) weekends off, away from the kids – I just want to eat, read, drink tea, and sleep, and then repeat cycle, until I do not want to do any of the above.

I do not feel well rested. I do not feel like I have built up sufficient resources to get through this stupid year.

The idea that I need to get through 10 months of this year before it is the “end” paralyses me with fear.

I do not have the resources to survive this year based on where I am and that I still need to cover a few dozen school books, do school projects that are given to me in the last minute, clean up dog poo as the stupid dog refuses to be house trained, probably go through the entire recruitment exercise to locate a new Pepe, make decisions about whether to eat a McMuffin or drink Herbalife every morning – for the record McMuffin has pretty much won hands down this week, and the rest of the stuff that life has to offer.

I am totally frayed and exhausted and have zero emotional cushion for this year ahead.

It is the first week of February, and I seriously cannot do an hour a day of driving kids to and from school, with them fighting and bitching and arguing.

I seriously cannot get through another hour trapped inside my car, with three kids fighting about who is looking out their window or who is touching who.

You know when you grab the steering wheel, and your knuckles go white and inside your head you are convinced you have burst an artery. I am already at that point, and it is February.

I am actually trying to brace myself at the moment for the drive home with kids, I really really cannot do it today.

The next person who tells me to “savour every moment” is going to get a slap. through the face. with a rusty spade.

On a related topic.

It is the first week of February, and I miss Aden Thomas on 567 more than I can say.

I listen to 567 Cape Talk when I drive the kids around. I really am not a fan of loud incessant music, so the chatter of good folk, warms and often calms my soul. I like to hear adults talk about adult things, in a fairly intellectual manner, and open subjects up to debate. I learn something most days listening to Cape Talk.

This year I am stuck with Kieno Kammies.

Oh gawd, it has all gone so horribly wrong, and so quickly – I barely had a chance to regroup. One minute I was happily listening to CapeTalk and bracing myself for the day, next thing I was wondering if I would have to find another radio station.

I love 567 Cape Talk.

Or I used to love 567 Cape Talk.

Now I am feeling somewhat betrayed that I am having to suffer the village idiot in the morning.

Could I not have Redi at 6 – 9am and who ever wants to listen from 9 take Kieno. Actually if Kieno went on from 13h00 - 15h00 there would be less of a chance that I hear his voice. Africa, could I interest you in an early morning slot?

I feel more passionately about this than the referendum from 1994 or what ever. I would so stand in a queue on this issue.

I would swap, good grief, I would so swap him right now. If I had the power, I would push the copy and paste button and switch their schedules.

Aden Thomas used to ease me into my morning, and he was the calm in my morning drop off mania – he was the calm voice of reason – I chuckled with him, and sometimes I disagreed with him, but I still liked to listen to him

Now I have Kieno who makes me want to stop the car. Dig in the boot to find my kid’s school bag. Rummage through it for their stationery bag, then find an HB pencil and STAB MYSELF IN THE EAR.

I am almost sure a ruptured ear drum would be less painful than Kieno Kammies.

This morning I turned off the radio at a certain point as I could no longer bear him.

I ask you with tears in my blue eyes - karma what the fk are you doing to me? What am I left with in the morning?

Screaming, arguing kids … that is what!!!!

Aden please come back. Can we send Kieno where ever it is that you went, and leave him there?

I cannot do this year already. I know I can’t do it with Kieno Kammies … when life hands you lemons, find an annoying kid with a paper cut!!

8 Comments

by reluctantmom on February 7, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in School and Kids

Tagged 567 Cape Talk, CapeTalk, Kids and School, Kieno Kummings, Morning Radio Show, Reluctant Mom

Posted by reluctantmom on February 7, 2012

http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/am-i-the-only-one-wanting-to-run-away-from-this-year/