I’ve been a classroom volunteer at my niece’s school for three weeks and I’m about to go nuts, I’m so freaking angry at some of these parents.
There is a core group of troublemakers in the classroom, five little boys, and they all happen to go to the daycare center where my mother works. Without exception, they are all there from about 6 in the morning to 6 at night. They come to school exhausted, and most parents will tell you that an overtired child is a hyper child. I’d say that at least 30% of the teacher’s time is taken up with these five boys, out of a class of 24.
What breaks my heart is how hungry for attention and love these little boys are. When they aren’t acting up, they are crawling into my lap, trying to get hugs. None of the other children do this; they seem to like me & would talk my ear off it I let them, but they are not about to climb into my lap and act like a baby (which these boys do.)
The other day, one of the boys accidently locked a classmate into the block cupboard. The locked in boy was screaming wildly with fear, but the other boy was just calmly playing with the trucks. It was creepy how nonchalant he was about the whole incident, most children would have been crying out of a mixture of remorse & fear of punishment. I fear for this boy, and in another 10 (maybe less) years, people will be afraid of this boy.
To be fair, I have no idea what is going on in these children’s homes, but my gut tells me something isn’t right. One of the boy’s father took two weeks leave and still dropped him off at daycare every morning. Two weeks and he couldn’t spare a lousy day for his son! And then he wonders why the school is calling at least once a week, and the teacher is always sending home notes.
To parents like these, I’ve gotta say, Fuck you and if I were a more merciful person I would pray that your children will someday find it in there hearts to forgive you. I wouldn’t be surprised if they picked your nursing home out of a 60 Minutes expose and dump you there like you dumped them on everybody else for all those years. Day care can’t raise your kids, the school can’t raise your kids. It’s up to you and you’re blowing it. Don’t you even care that your kid is looking for affection from someone they’ve known for a total of 30 minutes? You might think it’s cute when your kid curses and acts like a little gangster, the teacher sure doesn’t and neither do the other kids in the class who are trying to learn.
For everybodies sake, get your act together, pay some attention to your kids, or one day the cops are going to be knocking on your door telling you they have your kid either in jail or a bodybag.
(BTW, I’d like to emphatically state that I am not placing the blame on working parents. There are plenty of other children in the same day care who are thriving & a joy to be around. I’m only talking about the stupid parents who don’t want to be around their children, I’d bet that even if they had a stay at home parent, they’d be just as neglected.)