Beth has been particularly trying lately. And when I say trying, I mean she’s actually been particularly turdy. For those not familiar with the term, to put it in straight talk, she’s been a right shit!
We had parent teacher interviews last week. Beth’s been having issues with a boy in her class called Jesse. She had told me last year that he’s mean to her and he calls her stupid. We had talked about it and she’d told me that he’s mean to everybody. I said that it’s not so bad when they’re just mean kids as it’s not directed at her in particular and she agreed. This year though she’s been saying she’s sick more often than not so I asked her if she was getting along ok with the other kids. She said that Jesse and her were on the same bench in cooking and he’s still being mean.
The week before last she had said that her heart was hurting at school. They called me and asked if there was any predisposition to heart issues and I said no and that we had been to the doctors and got everything checked out. She had had an ear infection the week before and the doctor had checked her heart and said it was a bit fast but probably because of the infection. We had been back and told it was ok but she had a sore chest. The doctor said it was probably inflammation due to the infection and Panadol would do the trick. We’d also gone to the osteopath to make sure it wasn’t her ribs due to posture so got it fully checked out. Anyway, she’d figured the heart thing out and told the school that her heart was sore. The issue was that she was incredibly rude about it. She demanded ‘call my mother and have her pick me up immediately’! She also demanded that they gave her books to read in the sick bay. When told no she cracked it. All in her horrid high pitched ‘I am the queen’ voice. They did ring me and I told them that there was nothing wrong with her so she stayed there. And found the first aide books and read them!
Anyway, at the parent teacher interview we discussed Jesse and how Beth tends to get a bit obsessed with people and things they do that annoy her. The teacher positioned herself where Jesse would stand where Beth said he ‘just keeps looking at me’ and pointed out that Beth wouldn’t know this unless she turned around to look at him in the first place. He obviously has realised what buttons to push with Beth and she’s reacting and is now annoyed at everything he does. Then there’s her attitude to the teachers. When given a tub of icing and lots of choices for decorating her cupcakes she promptly tipped the tub on top and said she was finished. When told they didn’t look like the ones made by the visiting teacher she said that hers looked much better than the nicely decorated ones. When the teacher pushed it Beth told her that she didn’t know what she was talking about and that Beth was the expert! When confronted with the news that I had been told ALL about her behaviour and that I would be told in future she wasn’t terribly happy as she knows there will be consequences. I did ask if she is finding being on her feet a bit of a strain all day for the 2 cooking days a week. Her solution was that they supply her with a wheelchair!
This morning was a doozy. It’s the last day of term and she thought I’d give her the day off. We had one of those mornings where she just kept going and I got angrier and angrier. She did things like having a shower and going to put her pyjamas back on. She doesn’t let go of an idea and kept insisting she was sick with a chesty cough even though the only time I heard it was when she did it when telling me about it. When we left the house she shut me out and said goodbye. She lost her Samsung tablet for the car ride as I had told her to be quiet. Then in the car she went on and on and on. When I told her to stop talking to me she seemed to invent an invisible friend. Usually when she talks to ‘somebody’ else it’s her fly Cuddly or her spider Leggy but there was nobody there. She kept talking about me in a quiet voice. Things like ‘maybe next time she’ll believe me’. Or ‘she’ll let me have the day off next time.’ This went on and on and I kept getting madder and madder until finally I snapped and swore and told her I didn’t want to hear her voice talking to anybody for the rest of the trip. I took a sip of my traveller coffee and as I did I heard her whisper ‘she’s thirsty’ to whoever the hell she was talking to about me!
