Welcome to this week’s Sunday Post. This feature is brought to you by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, so swing by after you are done here and get the full list of participants!
- Rent Free by Lani Lynn Vale
- The Sing Sing Files by Dan Slepian
Why are short weeks so long? By the end of the day Thursday, my fellow educators and I looked haggard. It was a rough week (several behavior problems that took up a lot of time, angry parents, etc). I had a parent yell at me on the phone for 45 minutes. She wasn’t always yelling about me, but she railed against “government intrusion” and that she “doesn’t know me from Adam, so why would I tell you anything”. Nothing I did made her happy. She demanded I send her a copy of every thing I was going to do with her nephew-every question I was going to ask, every rating scale, every test. She said that I couldn’t talk to him about vocation because “that’s the parent’s job”. I explained it would just be an interest survey and she said “No. I don’t want you to ask him what he is interested in-he is doing what I tell him to”. So, after she spent 45 minutes telling me the department of education is a scam and I have no right to talk to her kid about anything, I reminded her that as his guardian, she can say no to the process. Parent consent is the first requirment. If she doesn’t want me to do the evaluation, she can say no. Then she yelled at me because “he needs his IEP. You can’t take that from him.”. Then I explained that the state of Ohio requires these things for an evaluation, so either I do what the state wants, or I don’t. If I don’t, he won’t have an IEP. More yelling. I agreed to send her everything I could in advance (IQ and academic assessment questions cannot be sent). She called the next day after I sent it home to yell at me some more. She didn’t like the questions, she was crossing off the questions she didn’t want to answer, etc. At this point, I seriously do not care. Then she said “Well, I would like to meet you. I will be at the school Monday afternoon and I will expect to meet you then. I am not letting a stranger work with my child”. Mind you, she hasn’t met ANY of his teachers, his guidance counselor, or the principals of the school, but she won’t let me work with him until she meets me. Y’all, I have been a teacher for 18 years and I have never had a parent/guardian be this argumentative. I’m dreading Monday. Also, I have meetings all day Monday, but she didn’t care about that. “You can meet me for 5 minutes. This is more important”. Sigh. Send me good thoughts on Monday please.
We are trying to cash out the equity on our home. Our finances are a mess and we have to get things in orders. We also need to do some repairs to the house. So, in addition to the stressful work week, it was a stressful financial week. We have to pay $400 for the appraisal (not sure how we are going to get that) and get the house in shape. I’m not good a keeping the house clean and organized. It is just not my thing. It is definitely not my husbands thing either, so sometimes I don’t bother because he is just going to keep being messy anyway (terrible excuse I know). But, I get home at 3 pm and we go to bed at 9 (because we get up at 5:00 am) so I don’t have a lot of time. When I’m home from work, I want to play with the dogs, watch a show, sit down. But, I gotta get over it. I’m trying to take it one task at a time. So, Saturday I plan to tackle 2-3 jobs, with breaks in between. Slowly chipping away!
So, give me some tips about cleaning, dealing with unpleasant people, your favorite book, anything! I need some support!
So, whats new with you this week? Did you read any of the same books I did? Did you find any great book deals I need to grab ASAP? Let me know in the comments!
Ugh, that is so stressful to deal with parents like that! I’m sending you positive vibes for Monday that it all goes easily. I’ve noticed sometimes those parents in person are all nice and nothing at all like on the phone. I tried back in May to get some equity out of my house to get my finances in order, but because I have an FHA loan I couldn’t get enough out to do anything. I’m hoping if interest rates go down, maybe I can switch to another type of loan to get that equity to pay off some credit cards and just feel like I’m not constantly keeping up on those, but having to then use them because I’m paying so much on them. I feel. you with the cleaning house too! I just want to come home and play with the dogs, blog, watch tv, read, etc. Let’s hope this is a good week for both of us!
That short week feeling long is such an odd phenomena. There are always people who just don’t get it. Sorry you have to put up with that behavior. Good luck with the house and your finances.
I’m sorry you have to deal with such an unpleasant person! She needs to be reminded that you’re not the enemy, you’re there to help her nephew. Maybe she’ll be nicer in person? I hope your Monday meeting goes well. As for cleaning house, I try to tackle the cleaning part in one day, like mopping, vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms. I keep up during the week by vacuuming the floors (bathroom included) with a light Dyson vacuum, try to put things away after use as I go. That way things don’t pile up. I hope you have a better week, Sam!
The way I got my apartment decluttered was to focus on one place at a time. And I mostly just closed my eyes and threw stuff out without really going through anything or looking at anything. Once that was done I did my cleaning by focusing on one room per week and since a room has four sides, I would do one side per day. So, that’s Mon-Thur and then Friday was to finish up whatever I didn’t get to in that room. No cleaning or decluttering on weekends. Weekends are to be enjoyed.
Good luck!
I am so sorry you have to deal with her. I hope it goes well today. I always feel like I need to clean up / organize. I do a little bit all the time putting things away, sorting, throwing. Yet we have piles of things, boxes not put away from when we moved etc. I also try to do a little cleaning every day. But also yard work , the HOA is always saying various things need to be done (overall not specific emails to me). So I get it. I just try to do a little all the time even if I don’t always agree with others’ priorities.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I cannot imagine being a teacher in this day and age. I have a lot of respect for you taking on such a difficult job.
I hope your meeting with that aunt went well on Monday Samantha! And I would never judge you for the state of your house because even if I am not a slob, I confess that I too could do better but prefer read one more book that hunt for dust behind frames!