God, This Parenting Stuff is Hard!

It has been a bit of a stressful week in the Muse household. I think lack of sleep is probably at the root of it. Sleep deprivation also leads to foot stamping, general grumpiness and aversion to parental responsibility! I have been waking up in a cold sweat for the last five nights between four and five in the morning. What has woken me up ? Very detailed dreams of me attempting to look after loads of crying, sickly, horrible babies! Shudder. I am so happy all of that is behind me!

The Git has had a bit of tricky week at school where most of the staff and pupils are equally tetchy at  the thought of at least five more weeks in the classroom before the 'Holiday Fairy' shows it's face again.. He has been pulled twice on uniform and once for mucking about and being the class clown, as usual.  He was removed from his class and put into another one where the female teacher...lets call her The Mormo , snarled at him, that if he so much as moved a muscle she would rip up his work and he would have to start again. He obviously twitched on two occasions (honest mum...I never moved...yeah alright mate, if you say so...) as she carried out her threat on both! Now, far be from me to play the 'over protective' mother card but my patience was finally worn out when The Mormo had to leave the room, and announced to her year 10 class (The Git is year 9) that if he breathed, THEY had her permission to rip up his work.

It amazes me that such a Negative, PMS Ridden, Child Scarer is actually deemed fit to teach our children! If The Mormo is like this at the start of  term, imagine how scary she is at the end of term. Here we go again. Ho...hum. Back on the bloody treadmill. Write in his planner, send indignant letter, have meeting with Deputy Head. Wait for outcome of investigation and threaten The Mormo with the Governors. In the meantime, my reputation disintegrates into ''over protective mother who still breastfeeds her 12 year old'.  Over protective my arse! because  I also have a 25 year old and a 22 year old. who are well rounded, independent individuals.

I have no wish to tar everyone with the same brush. A dear friend of mine is a Housemaster at a Boys College in Oxford. He cannot wait to get back to school after the Hols and find out what his young charges have been up to. The Gits school is  a State run Monolith, which services one of the poorest areas in the country. It has too many pupils and a handful of frustrated, exhausted,  teachers, whose left hand has no bloody idea what the right is doing! Frankly I have better things to waste my time on. Why can't we see a more constructive, confident  way of disciplining our children? I cannot believe I have another 6 years of this situation to deal with. Children respond to positive mental attitudes and are at their happiest when they are encouraged and nurtured in an forward thinking, optimistic environment. If discipline is needed then teaching our children that actions have consequences is the only way to go.

Oh bugger, I have gone all preachy on you but The Git is really struggling and after his glorious summer of Music, Filming, Skate Boarding and Barging It, he is having a hard time. All of the confidence he built up over the summer is already being eroded.

Maybe I am out of touch but my school days were halcyon days of sunshine and fantastic teachers. Ah...but then I am a Donut Child and, it seems, impossibly privileged.

Thanks for listening.

Namaste

Muse x