Yet another silly day

Once again I got to Beth’s school tonight only to see her teacher come out to see me. Once again I thought ‘what has she done now?’ Apparently Beth had what her teacher kindly said was a ‘silly’ day. Of course she was speaking in front of Beth and I don’t think the staff like to call the children bad or maybe even naughty to their faces. Miss L told me that Beth had sworn. One of the girls was leaving and they were having a party for her. There were smarties on the table and Beth of course wanted them early. When she was told she couldn’t Beth turned to the teacher and said “That’s bullshit!” Lovely darling, so pleased you’re using such colourful language. When told that she shouldn’t speak like that Beth then went on to tell her teacher that she could make decisions for herself, after all, she is a woman! Well so much for not wanting to grow up. I must admit I do like the sentiment and found it hard not to laugh. But wait, there’s more! When the other kids in the class were being naughty and told off Beth felt it was her duty to tell them they could do what they wanted. So for example if there was a boy called Dave and Miss L had told Dave to be quiet Beth would say “It’s ok Dave, you can make as much noise as you want.” She’s such a delight when she’s in one of those moods. She was so eager for me not to know what had gone on that on the way to the car she said “So Mum, you want to know what I did today do you? Well I did maths, I did art, etc etc” something that she knew would please me as she’s usually hard to even get a sentence out of her. Then of course she’d follow with “Well done Beth, I’m proud of you for having such a good day!”

I can’t believe that I’m saying it but I’m so glad the holidays are nearly here. Getting Beth to school this week has been so hard. She just doesn’t like school. I can totally see the advantages of home schooling and know that she’d love it and I think I’d quite enjoy it too, especially the not driving side of it. But that’s not what she needs. She needs to learn how to behave in society in an acceptable manner, how to socialise, how to deal with not getting her own way. She needs to be where she is.

I spoke with the coordinator again last week after Beth had told me about the girls on camp telling her she was ugly. I had said about another boy telling me that lots of the kids were telling her that. It turns out that the boy had in fact been walking past the girls bedroom and overheard it. While I had known about the one time I had worried that it had continued on but no, they had put a stop to it after the one time. I’m very happy with how quickly the school deals with situations that are not acceptable, they’re straight on to it.

It’s the end of term three already. It still feels like we’re going to ‘Beth’s new school.’ It’s been such a big year. Building and moving into our new house, getting a new pooing machine puppy, Beth’s high school beginnings. It’s all going way too fast!