Holy Crap! My Kids Aren't Perfect?!

I know I do a lot of bragging about my kids - most of it to myself and a little bit on here and even a little bit more on Facebook [I hate the changes, too] ... but *faint* .... it turns out .. *gasp* ... that my kids aren't perfect after all. [Help me up...]

But really? Did it all have to happen in 1 week?! Sigh .....

Casey is a rule follower by nature. So when it comes to school work, Casey would rather turn in something done half-ass than not turn it in at all. On a [almost] daily basis I check what we call the "Parent Portal." This little website is designed to give us up to the minute updates on how our kids are doing in their classes. Grades fluctuate almost daily so I try (TRY) and only evaluate this little gem on Friday afternoons. Well, my week starts out and I see Casey has these weird 3 letters on one of lists of grades. NHI. NHI? I think. I wonder what that could mean? National Honor Inductee? I just can't imagine.... turns out this means Not Handed In and the grade he can get on it from here on out is a ZERO. I am shocked. Speechless. I won't bore you with the details on how I have not let this go with him and have literally seen him roll his eyes at me on a few occasions regarding this NHI, but really?

Then there is Hallie. Preschool. She comes home Tuesday and tells me that she had to take a time out in Spanish [HOLA!] because she was arguing with another girl. Now besides Parker biting someone in 3 year old preschool, neither of my boys ever got in trouble at preschool. So I ask what they were fighting about. Whether or not is was raining outside. Really? Seriously? So I ask Hallie which side she was on..... raining. Good girl because it WAS raining and you were right. Well, half right because you really can't be disrupting a Spanish class with your obnoxious need to be right all the time. Not sure where she got THATTTTTT............

Then the clincher. The perfect end to my week. I am going to post the e-mail that topped off my Friday night but I am going to change some names to be fair to the other kid/family..... My comments are in brackets.

Tammy; [Tami but whatever]

As I always do [and you, Tami, never do], today I took my kids to the bus stop and saw Parker was already there waiting for the bus. Right after him my son [insert name] lined up. When Mr. John [bus driver] approached the kids he was making some gestures [not that kind!] to the kids waiting. Then [said kid] said "Look, Mr. John wants to fight with me", to what Parker answered "He is talking to me, you idiot". [the dad wrote that in red, not me]

Probably [removed name for privacy] didn't noticed what Parker said, but unfortunately I did and want to express you that I feel really bad for what I saw (you have kids and I'm sure you wouldn't like to witness happening the same to yours). I understand that kids some time do not get up with a good mood, but I know you shouldn't be calling anyone for no evident "you stupid".

In this case I'm not looking for an apology; what I really want is this not ever happen again.


thanks in advance for the attention to this note;
[Neighbor]

My first reaction was to think oh Lordy ...... I would hate to be the first kid to actually be mean to your kid BUT then I had to remember the grudge I hold against this one kid from when Casey was in 1st grade. This kid I hold the grudge against said something mean to MY FRIEND'S kid and I wasn't even a witness. [sidenote: that kid really is a butt still to this day] So my response was to have Parker march over there and apologize to the DAD and then the kid.

I accidentally just popped open a beer instead of a diet coke. It's noon-ish and I have a football game and 2 baseball games in addition to two birthday parties still to go today .... hopefully your week was better than mine.....

Can't wait 'til Monday???