I do a lot of thinking about the IEP meetings I attended during my kids' schooling (because obsessively worrying about things I can no longer do anything about is kind of my thing). I think about the things that were said, the options that were offered, the viewpoints that were shared, the agendas that were pursued, the communication that did and did not take place, the things said behind backs, the inappropriate behavior on both sides, the tears shed, the mistakes made, the pushing and pulling, the opposition and the accommodation, the times when I won righteously and times when maybe I should have lost.
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I wrote the above in January 2020, and just found it in my drafts folder, where I'd left it unfinished and unpublished before taking a bit of a break from blogging. I don't know where I was going with it then, but looking at this now ... dang, I'm still obsessing about this stuff, more than a decade after my last IEP meeting. Why does this stuff stick with me? Do parents of typical kids obsess about that one really bad teacher's conference in second grade? Do they always remember what that one educator said that one time that made them so mad? Or does life just go on?Maybe other parents who've run the IEP gauntlet are over it once it's over, and it really is just me. I guess holding a grudge is kind of my thing too.
