a woman here just asked if she could have her pictures for free because she lost her wallet.

I'm seriously inspired by this woman. From now on, I'm going to lose my wallet for all the really big painful expenses. Car repairs? Lost my wallet. Home depot? Lost my wallet. Sorry.

We had a lot of doozies when I worked at the bank, but my favorite was the woman who took out a bunch of cash, left and came back an hour + later, saying she was $100 short. Um, yeah, because you spent it??

she said "Good-- you'd better. I spent an hour on the phone with the district manager for Taco Bell yesterday because they have the nerve to be charging twenty-five cents for a cup of water."

This is the kind of parent that drives teachers crazy. I had one parent tell me that if her daughter didn't get a Bright Future's Scholarship, she was going to sue the Gov Crist. Another told me that if her child didn't get into Duke, is was my fault becuase her daughter deserved an 'A' in Drama and I gave her daughter a 'B'. (her daughter earned a B because she kept blowing off my class to study for classes she really struggled with because she "had" to go to Duke and those classes would look good)

Ah yes, the overdeveloped sense of entitlement parent.

I've had to deal with a lot of them, especially with Abby being in the gifted track. Their children are speshul flowers who deserve the very best and to be treated differently, but make sure they're socialized so that they don't feel like outcasts.

::facepalm::

In a case of getting caught with my existential pants down in a major way, I figured out what has been bothering me so much about the Nebraska story.

It was not in my conscious mind at all, but the fact is, I was one of those kids.

After my father was convicted of molesting neighborhood kids, my mother dropped me off at a daycare center and never came back. She took her other three kids and left me behind. My grandmother ultimately 'bought' me from her by paying off the care bills. Gran then delivered me into my father's molesting hands.

I was a cast off kid who, many, many times wished that I'd been cast a bit farther.

So, while I was casting around looking for an answer to how we can, as a society, be of greater use to kids with parents who do not want them, what I should have been saying was, I wish a system like that had been in place for me.

It's weird that I wasn't thinking about myself at all until I got distance from the story.

So yeah, I'm busted.

You're off the hook, Jesse. Burrell said she's going to fill the prescription for me, the dear.

We were in similar colors (orange) but they were not the same. Didn't love the pics, but got enough to give as gifts and cards. $80 worth with a coupon.

Phew. Because I'm pretty sure I'm expected at work tomorrow.

Damn, bonny. I'm sorry you grew up in such a shitstorm.

Damn, bonny. I'm sorry you grew up in such a shitstorm.

Bless you, but I'm totally okay. The thing that really got me about this whole deal is that I was upset about this news story with absolutely no conscious awareness of its connection to my experience.

I wondered why my response to it was so strong, but it took speaking it out loud and getting push-back here that I really dug up the truth about what I was feeling.

My clients get that 'what's underneath this' question all the time but, today, it got turned within.

Interesting.

So, while I was casting around looking for an answer to how we can, as a society, be of greater use to kids with parents who do not want them, what I should have been saying was, I wish a system like that had been in place for me.

I wish it had been in place for you, too, bonny. As well as for the kids who need it today.