Yuk

Another terribly traumatic Thursday is in the books. Not only do we have the worst mix of dysfunctional, canNOT be trusted to do anything by themselves toddlers on Thursday but today was an Open School morning, so we got to be all dysfunctional in front of their parents and video cameras. I do believe (and it really is kind of a haze at this point) that there were several fathers in the crowd and at least one grandma. It was mass-freaking-chaos.

Do mothers in America still discipline their kids? I may just be a twenty something idealist teacher with hazy recollections of my own days in school... but I do believe with some amount of certainty (and I know she'll correct me if I'm wrong) that if I (as a child....well probably as an adult, too) hauled off and smacked another small child or a teacher...RE-PEATEDLY... my mother would have set the video recorder down and hauled me into a corner and had some eye to eye stern voice time. I'm not saying my mom was a crazy scary lady (well maybe at that moment she would have been to me as the two year old), I'm just saying that it was really akward and hopeless to be sitting less than 3 feet away from two rows of seated parents while children (belonging to aforementioned parents) were beating each other and myself until other children were crying. Now, these are two year olds... so maybe they just thought it was all fun and games but... as a teacher and NOT a parent of the violent children, there is really only so far I can go with discipline when I'm literally Right In Front of parents. At some point, the LINE needs to be drawn folks! How about the daddy who's precious princess is a complete, and I emphasize: The Worst Kid of the Bunch, spaz. He's got video camera in hand taping us as we motion desperately for his daughter to join us (for the millionth time). His daughter is sitting at his feet. He is video taping US. Anyone see a discrepency here?

It was wild. Just wild. And yes, my expectations are probably high for two and three year olds but even IF I were two or three I still don't believe I would have enjoyed being stabbed in the face with a chopstick (as I was today... this time not in front of a parent, but Yui-chan thought she was hilarious. Where do they get that idea?). And finally... why in the hell has it been hard-wired into humans the world over that when their nose is stuffed they should insert a finger and then dispose of the crud By Eating It. Why, God, Why? I just don't understand.