Thursday, April 13, 2006

Never tick off the aides

Well, I seem to be in some trouble at my children's school. Not with the administration, like that year when the principal forbade teachers and aides to talk with me and had me escorted off the premises at least once. Not with the teacher; I don't think I've ever really been in trouble with a teacher. This time, I've ticked off an aide, for reasons having partly to do with my tendency to overreact loudly when I think something's not being done right and partly to my son's tendency to pick up phrases he hears at home and parrot them, out of context, at school. So I might, say, in a moment of anger at something that happened in school, rage that a particular aide ought to do her job. And my son will then go to school the next day and, over and over, tell the aide to "Do your job! Do your job!" And really, even though I'd like everyone who works with my guy to understand that you can't take what he says seriously, I suppose that would hurt my feelings, too, and make me feel defensive toward that child's mom.

So it's unfortunate enough to be in bad with one aide. But aides talk, and they stand up for each other, and I'm beginning to get the feeling that I'm in bad with all the aides in the school, and that's a problem, because while teachers change each year, aides rotate. This morning, the aide who's supposed to watch my son before school officially starts was not where I expected her to be (that is, watching him) and when I asked her about it she said, quite curtly, "I know how to do my job." We've been friendly before, but clearly aren't now, and I can't help but feel it's because I've got bad aide buzz right now. (Although ... um ... must not say this where boy can hear ... but ... she actually wasn't doing her job.) And now I just don't know what to do. Should I force the issue and try to clear the air? Should I go above their heads and insist that my son's safety and protection hinges on these people's vision of their jobs being the same as my vision? Or should I just lie very low, try to ride out the year, and hope that nothing bad happens? Maybe send flowers? Cookies? Donuts? A picture of myself for their dartboard?

3 comments:

Scatteredmom said...

Oh my God...I'm sorry but I was rofl at this post. It's unfortunate that you have this trouble with the aides at your child's school. I am an aide myself, and I can't believe their behavior! Of course I the parent of an ld kid as well, so I can really get on their case. :P

Btw I really love your blog, can I link it to mine? I just got started at this whole blog thing.

Terri Mauro said...

Please do link to me! I just added you to my blogroll. Liked your post on hoarding -- in my house, my son and I are the hoarders, and my husband just wants to throw everything away. My son's room looks like a garbage dump, but he has every bit of trash memorized and if we toss anything or even suggest tossing it he has a meltdown. I at least keep my clutter in piles.

Scatteredmom said...

:) You're so sweet. Thanks! I haven't figured out how to do a blogroll yet, but I'll try to get you in there somehow.