It’s the Weekend, Again
September 25, 2010
Shortly after I took this photo, it turned its creepy head toward me and jumped at me. I screamed and ran inside. I am never going to be an outdoors sort of girl, am I?
Over at Alphamom this week I wrote about when tables turn and your kids start writing about you on the Internet. How will you feel then? And then I laugh at all of the energy so-called mommybloggers have wasted (myself included) worrying about what to write or not write about our kids. Seems some of us (me) forgot that one day they would have their turn. So go on and leave me a comment over there.
Have you been coming over to the Daily Laugh at BlogHer? Remember you just have to leave a funny comment and you might be the one chosen to win $100. Yes, that easy, every week someone is picked. Also there are 12 bloggers who are posting their hilarious stories, there is a link to all of them on the sidebar of BlogHer page. Each of them is picking a $150 winner from their comments every month. Their posts are funny enough that you would want to read them even if you had no desire to win $150. I don’t know who wouldn’t want to win $150… crazy people maybe.
Update on the pencil taping? My son’s teacher did not think it was the least bit funny. He said that she did not even smile. What does she have, a soul of stone? I mean, gosh it was funny. We then ended our plans to duct tape his homework folder to his chest. Clearly they have no sense of humor over there. In all fairness, if I had to work in a middle school every day and deal with those kids and their hormones, I’d be the same way. (Okay, no I wouldn’t.)
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She didn’t think it was funny???? She must have had her sense of humor removed with her tonsils when she was a child.
September 25th, 2010 at 10:55 amOMG. It looks like a toy, but you would still hear me screaming if it jumped at me.
My daughter has a writing blog for her short stories, but she’s 16 now and I’m just waiting for the day she lets loose with it and tells the internet about our “issues”. Good luck to all of us!
September 25th, 2010 at 10:58 amUh oh. A teacher without a sense of humour is a very sad and dangerous thing. Could be a loooong year.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:03 ambut i bet you’d have the sense to not teach middle school because you know that about yourself! i think the pencil taping was hysterical.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:17 amSometimes teachers take themselves way too seriously!
September 25th, 2010 at 11:51 amShe would have a lot more success in dealing with your sons forgetfulness if she would recognize his efforts to do something about it.
nope.. she has no sense of humor. I thought it was hilarious!
September 25th, 2010 at 12:21 pmI wish I had seen her face. I honestly thought that was hilarious!
Now you’ve gone and done it. You are the deviant, smart ass parent..
September 25th, 2010 at 12:33 pmWe’re homeschooling now, but last year when I asked the principal of our elementary school to assign my fifth grader janitorial work since that’s where his future was heading with his lack of effort in the classroom, she was quite offended and replied that it is the county’s policy to not assign children manual labor. That’s okay, I had him scrub out toilets at home….his school work improved dramatically. Keep your humor. Even if the teacher’s don’t appreciate it, your family and readers do!!
I love your blog. Keep it coming! http://www.Barefootography.com
Laura Hirsch
September 25th, 2010 at 12:49 pmI teach high school and I thought it was hilarious! Sorry to tell you that this behavior might not get better before high school, or even by the time he graduates. I have some students that never have their supplies and I know their parents bought what they needed.
September 25th, 2010 at 1:43 pmI would have freaked when the bug jumped @ me too, and I thought it was pretty funny to tape your son’s pencil to his hand. I think if you’re going to be a teacher, you would NEED a sense of humor to get through the day. I’m sorry your son’s teacher appears to have a soul of stone.
September 25th, 2010 at 3:18 pmI am a middle school teacher and I think that is hilarious! I would love to see pencils taped to the hands of several of my students. And while we are at it, go ahead and tape their homework to their chests! I would love to have a few parents with your sense of humor! So excellent.
September 25th, 2010 at 3:32 pmOh, the pencil thing was hilarious. there’s never too much good humor in this world.
September 25th, 2010 at 3:33 pmYa gotta have a sense of humor when you work with kids……does she think he doesn’t want to remember his damn pencil!
September 25th, 2010 at 3:36 pmKeep smiling …..your kids are growing up fast!
As a middle school teacher myself, I thought your solution was brilliant (and hilarious). I’d have my students do that too, but I’m sure most of the parents wouldn’t like the idea as much as I do.
September 25th, 2010 at 3:36 pmIf you can’t have a sense of humor about middle school aged kids’ quirkiness/weirdness/absentmindness
you have no business teaching that age. I thought it was hilarious.
September 25th, 2010 at 3:37 pmI was afraid of that reaction.
My boys and I, however? We laughed our asses off.
September 25th, 2010 at 3:45 pmHOW could she not think that’s funny?!? I mean, that’s practically the EPITOME of funny! Sheesh, she’s gonna work herself into an early grave if she doesn’t keep her sense of humor!
September 25th, 2010 at 4:00 pmLast year my 9 year old went to school with a beer bottle cap in his pocket.I didn’t realize he had taken it in with him. It was from my husband’s beer that he had had the night before. The teacher wrote a really rude and mean note about how horrible it was for my son to have done that and then proceeded to tape (with several layers of tape,no less) the bottle cap to his agenda. So I thought I was being really funny and I wrote a note back on the agenda saying “Oh, this bottle cap must be from the beer my son and I shared at breakfast.” She didn’t find it amusing - not even slightly amusing, but all my friends did.
September 25th, 2010 at 4:11 pmYour pictures constantly amaze me. Fabulous!!!! …and I would have ran too.
September 25th, 2010 at 4:16 pmHehehe, I love the pancil / homework taping idea. I’m sorry the teacher is so boring and without a hint of sense of humour. I wish my students had so funny and working ideas (because it’s working!!!). Take care!
September 25th, 2010 at 4:36 pmOh those things scare the pee out of me. (well okay, that’s not hard after 4 kids) I was at a photo shoot a few weeks ago and one landed on my camera strap. I just about died.
September 25th, 2010 at 5:09 pmI can’t believe she didn’t laugh. It was way funny! God help middle school teachers; they go through even more than middle school parents.
September 25th, 2010 at 5:54 pmHow did she not think that was funny, Well I hope she at least had some positive words to say to him when he remebered his pencil.
September 25th, 2010 at 6:32 pmIs that a locust? Run for the hills!!! I lived through an invasion in West Africa and still have nasty memories of them ending up in everything–including bread.
September 25th, 2010 at 6:53 pmI’m a 5th grade teacher. If a parent in my class had done that, I would have died laughing, then sent home a thank-you note for sending their child to school prepared!
September 25th, 2010 at 6:57 pmLove the picture! His eyes look at you as if to say, “I’m coming to get ya!” So sad that the teacher didn’t even smile. I would have laughed outright and been in good humor about it. Whatever works right?!!!
September 25th, 2010 at 7:27 pmSeriously? She didn’t think it was funny at all? Bummer.
September 25th, 2010 at 8:37 pmAmazing picture!
I am inspired by your attitude towards your son’s issues with his teacher! My kids are 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 now. I hope I will remember this pencil taping story when they’re old enough to benefit from this genious piece of parenting:)
September 25th, 2010 at 8:59 pmHow could she not think that was funny? Hmm… maybe she has a pencil stuck some where?
September 25th, 2010 at 10:13 pmYou might be surprised at how your outlook would change if you did spend some time in a middle school. It is a shame that you and the teacher can not sit down and have a face to face meeting about what is going on with your son. It might be insightful for both of you.
As for her suggestion that you spend a day with him, I agree that he is a big boy and needs to learn to keep up with his own pencil without your help, but it would probably be very eye opening for you to see what his day is really like. What he comes home and tells you is only part of the story. There is the part he can not explain, the part that he does not think is important, and the part that he does not want his parents to know because he is a middle schooler now and parents don’t need to know everything. And, depending on the kid, there may be several other parts as well.
The teacher has the same ultimate goal that you have: to prepare your son to be the best he can be. It would be nice if the two of you could work together to accomplish this.
September 25th, 2010 at 10:37 pmthe teacher sounds like a joy sucker.. that’s what we call the ones that try to suck the joy out of everything with their sour attitude. going to have a long year with that one… makes me wonder why they ever get into teaching if they don’t like kids…
September 25th, 2010 at 10:55 pmI love teaching middle school and I understand that makes me a special kind of crazy. However, if one of my students came in the way you sent your son in, not only would it have made my day, but after I stopped laughing hysterically, I would have taken his picture for the yearbook, and then taken him to show the principal who, also, would have laughed.
We then would move you to the top of our favorite parent list. I cannot believe she didn’t think it was funny!! Props to your boy for going along with it.
September 25th, 2010 at 11:13 pmThere is no humor in middle school, Chris..and no laughing for god’s sake
Personally, I thought it was brilliant and actually snorted out loud while reading the post causing the oh so quiet group of literari sipping their joe to look up from their oh so important musings.
September 26th, 2010 at 12:23 amThinking back to my ‘tude in those days, *I* probably would have had a hard time “remembering” anything for such a teacher as well. Sadly, if I didn’t like the teacher, I just never did the work. Something I now must NEVER reveal to my daughter.
September 26th, 2010 at 7:58 amWell, I taught middle school and I would have found the solution hilarious. It didn’t take me long to figure out middle school is a laugh or cry kind of place for teachers (and parents.) I so enjoy how you handle your kids problems with a sense of humor! Thank goodness for parents like you!
September 26th, 2010 at 8:19 amWorking in a middle school does suck the life out of you; I subbed in them a couple years.
September 26th, 2010 at 8:23 amI can’t even imagine working in a middle school. The thought gives me the shivers. Either way, it was an awesome idea.
September 26th, 2010 at 8:43 amI thought it was pretty darn funny. I am going thru the same sort of stuff myself since the addition of our 5th and am trying to do the Love and Logic thing. It can be painful, but it works. Sometimes I think I tell my kids no too much but then I remember that I am the one that has to fashion their characters well enough so they can survive in this world.
September 26th, 2010 at 11:19 amI’m a middle school teacher & I would have found this HILARIOUS! And I would have appreciated the effort and creativity of getting to class with a pencil!
September 26th, 2010 at 12:49 pmThat is too bad she doesn’t have more of a sense of humor. I thought it was pretty funny.
Sometimes I wonder if some of those teachers forget that the kids are people too.
September 26th, 2010 at 3:45 pmYour blog is like mom-therapy to me! I love your perspective and humor. Please advise: what camera do you use to get such clear images and depth? Thanks!
September 26th, 2010 at 3:51 pmThe pencil thingy WAS funny!
September 26th, 2010 at 7:03 pmcannot believe the teacher did not laugh…as a teacher, that is FUNNY…and awesome…i bet it worked!
September 26th, 2010 at 7:51 pmI am a teacher. It was TOTALLY funny!
September 26th, 2010 at 11:16 pmThe duct tape was HILARIOUS (and I’m a middle school teacher). And in regards to the grasshopper and Texas. In the seven years the Army had us living there, we experienced the ladybug invasion of ‘03 (the house looked like something out of a horror movie) where the house looked like it was breathing so many ladybugs were crawling on the outside of it. The grasshopper invasion of ‘04 (you could hear the crunching sound every time you drove down the road), and the frog invasion of ‘07. There were so many frogs, you had to capture them live and relocate them before you mowed the grass or risk your yard smelling like a Calcutta slum. My children earned quite a bit of money offering their frog wrangling services in the neighborhood that year. I swear it felt like the Plagues of Egypt had been visited upon us!
September 27th, 2010 at 7:58 amHow in the world could she not laugh?! OMG I just about fell on the floor laughing when I saw that photo with the blue tape hanging off his wrist.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:29 amThat is one fantastic picture!
September 27th, 2010 at 12:16 pmAwww that teacher has no sense of humor. Then again, you couldn’t pay me enough to teach middle school. It takes a special kind of person to survive living surrounded by constant puberty.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:54 pmIf I was his teacher I would’ve thought that was funny. That was funny! And practical ….
September 27th, 2010 at 9:08 pmUgh. As a former teacher of middle schoolers (now kindergarten) I cannot believe the unreasonable expectations not only the lack of a sense of humor this woman has. Waht a witch! You need a sense of humor to survive those kiddos plus be able to connect with them. I would have considered the folder and the pencil hilarious. I think she has an overinflated sense of how responsible that age group should be. It was why I alwayts had a rent a pencil jar and extra materials. Do they need to learn responibilitiy of course. Will it happen over night for a 6th grader no. This woman needs to understand the developmental needs of children that age better. Boo on her.
September 27th, 2010 at 9:10 pmMy brother teaches high school English and he would have laughed. Of course, when his students get a new book, he makes them, feel it, smell it, wear it on their heads. “Feel the book! Be the book!” is his motto.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:24 pmSorry he creeped you out when he jumped at you . . . but what a great shot!
September 28th, 2010 at 12:31 pm