you don't gotta like me . . .

“Mom, you don't got like us,

but you gotta love us. It says so in the Mommy Bible!”
―According to Sarah, my eldest darling daughter

she said that it is a quote from the Mommy Bible.

Years ago when my oldest daughter was a teenager and she knew that she had not been very nice, she crawled into bed with me one Sunday morning and laid the above quote on me. It is very true.

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I understand the logic of the kids going nuts the week or so before summer break ends, but geez they are just about ready to drive me over the edge. I took off two days last week to spend time with the kids, running them to several appointments and lessons (dentist, orthodontist, swimming, violin, ENT, end-of-summer concert). We also did some shopping . . . socks, tights, shoes. We had the meeting with the college counselor on Thursday.

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They got upset because I made them put on their swim suits, turn off the electronics and get their butts outside. We also had a required reading time (both days). The crazy thing is that they love swimming and reading. So basically, I was making them do things that they love doing. Arghhh.

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So, I am taking off tomorrow. It is Dave's (he is returning to first grade again . . . teaching that is) and Zachariah's (he is going into 4th grade, with a teacher I do not like . . . the only upside being that Sister Marietta will be teaching math and religion with his regular teacher doing the balance) first day of school. It is a problem with the teacher. She was hired because she is a friend of the principal. As a parent, I would not know some of the things I know. As the wife of a teacher at the same school and as an invitee to the principal's home, I do know things I wouldn't otherwise know. Simple things like the fact that last year, the teacher never taught science and did such a poor job at math that the principal (her friend) was going to teach math this year. The kindergarten teacher, who is a good friend of ours, told me that one of the other Moms at the school last year, got so frustrated with the 4th grade teacher, that she had developed a series of "form letters" and sent one almost every week to the teacher and the principal. The problem I have is that my husband also teaches at the school. Which, in a nut shell, is the only reason I can think of why parents shouldn't be at the same school as their children.

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I don't know about your part of the world, but most of the schools will be starting school this week. Lindsey starts on Thursday. She only has a half day (8:00 to 11:00 with no bus service). So, I am taking off to get her to school and to pick her up.

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Lindsey was very upset with the college counselor. If she wants to get an Honors Diploma, she has to take Spanish IV in her senior year. She also never planned gym into her schedule. And, frankly, there isn't any room in her schedule without going to summer school. She could give up on music. I find it very annoying that she would have to sacrifice orchestra for gym when she is on the swim team and will be swimming five days a week, usually twice a day, from November to February. The stupid, stupid, stupid thing is that the school makes the students take gym five days a week for an entire semester. And, since they are on block schedules (4 classes per semester at 80 minutes per class per day), she would have gym for 80 minutes a day for five days a week for an entire semester. It is basically classified at the same level as Calculus but is only worth 1/2 credit.

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And, so whose fault is this . . . you guessed it . . . mine. She is angry with me. She is angry about the Spanish IV (which she doesn't want to take) and that if she had known that she would not have tested out of Spanish I. She is angry that she will be "wasting" her summer next year taking gym. You should have seen the look I got when I suggested that she take Spanish IV during the summer . . . of course, there isn't anyplace that she could take Spanish IV. Arghhhh.

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So, last evening I kept thinking about what Sarah had said to me sooooo many years ago . . . "Mom, you don't have to like us, but you gotta love us . . . it says so in the Mommy Bible."