PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!

So I know many of you out there have been in my shoes.  But damned if I am tired of them and can I trade them in!?! 

I feel as if I am ALWAYS fighting for what is right for my children.  I am their mother, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!  I do know what I am talking about.  I am an educated person who does not usually have her head in the sand.  I know when my children are struggling and I know when they can be successful.  Some of my children have extra challenges and some of them need more challenges.  They are all who they are and I accept and love them for it.  So when I tell you I have a concern or at this time my child needs special consideration PLEASE LISTEN TO ME! 

I understand it may seem as if I am being an over protective mom.  I am not.  It is not in my nature.  People usually accuse me of the opposite.  Just today I sent my son who is days from 7 to the bathroom by himself at Wal-Mart.  He knows where it is.  I told him to meet me by the milk.  He knows where that is too.  And low and behold, he took himself to the bathroom and met me by the milk.  But the dirty looks I got were enough to freeze Satan in his tracks.  And as I walked off I wondered how many well meaning people followed him on his way.  But my point is:  I know my children.  I know when we have reached their limits, I know when they need more, and I know when something is wrong.  So PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!

When my oldest two were young I fell into this trap of listening to those in authority who think I am just exaggerating or being over protective.  And in the end, I was right and it took us a year and a half of therapy to fix the experts' mistake.  I will not fall into that trap again.  I will not be quiet.  I will not defer to your expertise when my whole being is screaming otherwise.  So PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!  I am tired of screaming.

I do not have all the answers, no one does.  But I am not afraid to stand up for my children.  I will work with you.  I will work within the system.  I will bang my head into the wall over and over until you notice or it caves in.  But in case you didn't hear me say this before:  PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!

Education Hell

I have spent the last year and a half trying to convince a school that my middle son needed extra help.  We  finally got there this year.  Hooray.  But today I spent time in yet another education hell.  My youngest son has been in early intervention and special needs preschool since he was a year and a half old.  he is now 5 1/2 and everything seems to be going well.  Then it's time to renew his IEP.  And guess what, all of this extra help he has been getting is helping.  Hooray, right?  Except now he no longer qualifies for services and can not attend preschool.

Yep, that's right.  In the middle of the school year they are going to kick him out of preschool.  He is old enough for kindergarten, but we opted not to send him because we felt an extra year in preschool would be beneficial.  Only, now he isn't going to get a full year of preschool.  I called private preschools and no one has an opening that works for us.  *sigh*  So I am now arguing with the school that they can not just discontinue services for a child in the middle of the year.  What are we supposed to do?  And yes, we have day care lined up, but that does not provide him with the educational services he needs. 

If all of that weren't enough, my daughter is registering for her first year of high school and my oldest son is struggling in math.  Only he isn't struggling with comprehension, he is bored.  Yep, bored.  He dislikes going over something multiple times when he understood it the first time.  He was in the gifted math program in elementary school, but wasn't put into advanced math in middle school.  I don't know why.  But it's time to pick next year's classes and they need to put him into advanced math next year.  Fortunately, the teacher was great and has some ideas for how to challenge him this year as well as getting him into advanced math next year. 

Now I just have to call the guidance counselor and hope she listens to me and the teacher.  At least I have standardized test scores on my side.  He scored very high on the math portion.  I think those tests scores are hokey, but if they help me get what I want I will use them.

So today's education hell meant visiting the elementary school principal, scheduling an appointment with the guidance counselor, talked to my youngest's teacher about his poor behavior in school today while waiting for parent teacher conference with my oldest son's math teacher, and came home to discuss high school graduation requirements with my daughter.  It has been a day of education hell.