Cheers, love - I know this is painfully mememe, but it did help to just spill it onto the screen. And, yes, I do have school support - my colleagues are being excellent about it. (The new deputy head, who is herself getting utterly undwarranted stick from some psychotic parents at the moment, gave me a little card and 3 scented candles this morning, bless her, to help me relax at home. Did I mention that I love my school?)

So - deep breath. Suck it in. Do better. Make them eat their fucking words.

At this point they have not removed their daughter from the school - and my boss, god love her, has drawn a very polite line in the sand (despite this being a fee-paying school) and is saying that she has faith in me, and that if the kid's in this school, she's in my class - and if she leaves my class and leaves the school, then so be it, and good luck with that.

Which is fucking awesome, and I really do appreciate. (The polar opposite of what I've seen in the other schools where I've worked.)

I keep reminding myself that in my career, obviously I'm going to have parents pissed off with me/their child's schooling. And that this is about as positive an instance as I'm going to get, and that I'm enormously lucky to have the support and confidence of my colleagues and my boss. So I need to chill the fuck out, and not take it to heart.

i've had people recast my sentences for me (part of my outsourced self-esteem) and looking at this as an example of support from your school rather than an assault from a parent is exactly the sort of thing they meant.

So much easier to have perspective on other people.

Man, I thought the baby was done crying. Poor tyke. ERs make me cry too, but I'm more of a sobber than a wailer.

Katie Holmes in Posh's haircut, in case there is anyone with haircut interest in this thread.

my boss, god love her, has drawn a very polite line in the sand (despite this being a fee-paying school) and is saying that she has faith in me, and that if the kid's in this school, she's in my class - and if she leaves my class and leaves the school, then so be it, and good luck with that.

That's excellent. Having a supportive boss can make a huge difference. My brain is still clanging over the cognitive dissonance between the situation I was in back in Baltimore and the place I am now.

Sign me up as another person who sucks at putting names and faces together. In situations where I've taught classes, I have taken to warning people ahead of time that I SUCK at the face-to-name thing, and that I am likely to have to ask their names several times over.

So, I'd like to thank vw for all she has shared with us regarding radical acceptance because I swear it is the only thing keeping me from totally losing my shit over the fact that after 6 7 weeks, my car is still not fixed.

That, and as my mom says, if it can be fixed with money, and you have the money, it's not that bad. And yeah, there are much worse things than paying for a rental car, but I want my own. car. back. NOW!

(Car was supposed to be ready tomorrow, but I just know it won't be and I'm trying to get mentally prepared for that so it doesn't ruin my weekend. Car accident was Sept 19th.)

Oh, Fay, what an ick situation.

I'm terrible at names, and I'm being reaffirmed in that with the tutoring I've been doing. When I run into a student outside of session (when I don't have my sign-up sheet with me), I can place that he/she is a is a tutoring student, but I can rarely remember his/her name.

So, I'd like to thank vw for all she has shared with us regarding radical acceptance because I swear it is the only thing keeping me from totally losing my shit over the fact that after 6 7 weeks, my car is still not fixed.

Oh, honey. That is awful. I'm glad radical acceptance is helping, but gonna still validate what an awful situation that is.

Thanks - I was just laying (lying?) in bed this morning thinking about how angry the whole thing makes me and then I was angry that something so beyond my control was taking up even more of my time/energy/emotion well-being. That's when all the board conversations about radical acceptance popped into my mind.

Miss Fay, you're one of the least tedious whiners I've ever known. As is de rigeur it seems, for b.org teachers, you come across as conscientious, inventive, and sensitive.

What ita said, or was that Vortex?

Sorry about the car situation Stephanie. My worst car repair was for a convertible I had. It took them 13 weeks to get the part for the turbo and they left the car outside totally closed in the sun which ruined the plastic back window. I've erased most of the incident from my memory because of the resultant anger. May you be pleasantly surprised and actually get the car back tomorrow.

Stephanie, you are wise to use vw's wisdom. But I hope your car gets fixed.

Fay, I know that you'll do the best you possibly can for the girl. That parent? He's not in the classroom with his daughter and it sounds like he's doing this to stroke his own ego. Your director there sounds like one in a million, so hurrah! for her and her support of you.

I am back on hold with Hell.