You mean it doesn’t? I just always figured that, since I tended to get soar throats when I was in a place where the furnace was on really high.
:smack:
Just call me Emily Litella.
:o
Doessn’t necessarily have anything to do with germs though. When I was a kid, the doctor said my constant sore throats were because my grandfather kept the house overheated. Not because of anything to do with germs, though- said it was becasue the air was too dry.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but holy crap you are your son’s worst enemy!
One day he is going to be grown and not know how to handle the real world. Mama won’t be there to protect him from the bullies on the bus. She won’t be there to do his homework. She won’t be there to let him miss 40 FREAKIN DAYS FROM SCHOOL!
You cannot imagine the disservice you are doing this kid. Life is full of bullies and responsibilities and you have done nothing but teach him how to pretend they aren’t there. How will he ever learn to deal with these things when he is an adult?
Put him on the bus. Deal with the bullies IF and when it happens.
Make him do his own homework.
Shove a tissue in his pocket when he has the sniffles and send him on his way! Most (if not all) schools will allow you to take medicine into the office for the school nurse to dispense throughout the day. 40 DAYS!?!?! I know a little girl undergoing chemo and she doesn’t miss 40 DAYS!!!
Hold him back to 5th grade. Why do you even let his wish to complete school as fast as possible even enter into - ANYTHING?!?!? YOU are the parent! Act like one!
To be even harsher -
You have said a few times that you were a lot like your son at that age. Do you think being raised that way has helped you become a responsible adult? Do you feel that your background could be related to the fact that you have been actively looking for a job for the last FIVE YEARS and haven’t found one? Not to be cruel but you don’t seem well educated, at least that is the way your posts come across on the board.
I think you should step back and take a long, hard, serious look at the situation and decide what you want for your son’s future, because at least from where I am looking from, you are sabotaging it quick.
vanilla, if you take to heart anything said in this thread, I hope that it’s the post by Diane. This situation seems to have all of the makings of a long term disaster.
Haj
I second that suggestion. Vanilla, you’re the adult that your son will turn into. You’re a single parent, living with and depending totally on your aged father, looking for work after FIVE!!! years (after 6 weeks of looking, I’d take anything, ANYTHING to bring in a paycheck) and somewhat dismally educated. Is this what you want for your son? This is way more than a decision on whether to hold the little hot house flower back. It’s a chance to change the course of his life. Take it.
It seems like you are not setting your son up for a very successful future. By doing his homework for him, you are teaching him it’s ok to take credit for someone else’s work. You are also robbing him of a learning experience. He may get frustrated, some situations are frustrating. He needs to learn how to solve 5th grade math problems so he can use those applications to solve 6th grade math problems. You have to know how to do basic math to pass high school math classes.
You say he is behind socially. Part of that is probably in him missing 40 days of school in a year. Forty days is 8 weeks or 2 months!!! A lot of socialization could be done in those 40 days. There is more to learning that reading from a book or doing worksheets. Classroom interaction is important. I bet he has missed some group work time. While working in a group the kids learn valuable people skills.
Allowing him to miss that many days is also not going to help him in the future. If you were a boss would you allow someone to call in sick all the time? If he goes to school 36 weeks ( 9 months of the year ) and misses 8 weeks he is missing school about 22% of the time. Can you imagine what kind of job he will be able to hold down as an adult that will allow him to not work 22% of the time?
I, too am curious why riding a bus is such a bad thing. I do not know where you are from, and what kinds of things happen on the busses where you live but I managed to do ok after riding the bus for over 5 years. The school system here has a system in place that does not allow kids who misbehave to continue to ride the bus. IF you son gets bullied on the bus, report it to the driver, so the driver can keep his eyes open to see what is happening.
As for holding him back, you are the parent and you have the final say BUT, I would listen to what his teachers have to say. They should know if he is academically ready for the next grade or if staying behind a year would benefit him more.
Good luck
For the record, I graduated high school with mainly B’s and C’s. I got A’s in Algebra.
I would have gone to college but my parents absolutely said no; I suppose they didn’t want to pay for it.
I read constantly, and its been sometimes more of a learning experience than what I had at school.
My son gets A’s in Science and Social Studies.
As for Diane, I will pay no heed to any “advice” given to me by her on this board.
She is on record as calling me nutso and trashing me, so ay criticism coming from her is not what I will consider “constructive”.
But thanks to the rest. 
vanilla, did you ever think of taking classes at a local community college? You could probably qualify for a work study program.
In the mean time, what kinds of jobs are you looking for? I can’t imagine going FIVE YEARS without getting something. I’m at a year and a half myself of being unemployed and I’m about to tear my hair out. (I’ve recently gone back to looking for retail positions.) Of course, I don’t have a child to support and I HAVE gone to college.
Why not get your kid into some kind of classes or activities-he might make some friends and learn something-it could really help. I’ve always been naturally shy, and my parents had me in Girl Scouts, which helped a lot.
My son doesn’t qualify for Girl Scouts.
Kidding.
I am thinking of getting him in the BS through this local UM church.
The older school has an art club and he would be a natural for that.
Myself, I have tried mostly fast food places, telemarketers etc.
Its not like I have my sights set too high, though I used to be a secretary for Kelly Girls.
Well, I can sympathize there-right now, Pittsburgh ranks as one of the worst in the job market (and I personally can’t afford to move).
But seriously, why don’t you see if there are some schools you could look into. You might really enjoy it.
Your son could take martial arts, or something else.
Why don’t you put a little piece of tape on your computer monitor over Diane’s name or something. I can’t believe that you’re going to ignore potentially good advice because the person who typed it called you a name at some point in the past. Maybe it’s because there are some hard truths there that you don’t choose to face.
If you’re really willing to take any job, why don’t you sign up with every possible temp agency in town? Those temp jobs can often become permanent jobs if you do well where you’re placed.
Haj
Oh grow up.
I have an opinion of you that is less than flattering. It is an opinion based on quite a few things that have happened in the past. Things that involved another member of this board and more recently your Pit thread which basically attacked everyone who isn’t Christian, including someone who thought you were a friend. I will refrain from going into detail since this is not the Pit, just know that my opinion has come not only from these things, but from a long laundry list of things you have said and done over the years.
Aside from all of that and regardless of what you may think, I did not write the above post to attack you and believe it or not, it was constructive criticism. You can put your fingers in your ears and yell “LA LA LA LA LA LA” because the advice came from “Diane”, but the truth is that I truly feel that you are doing your son a grave disservice base on the information you have written here. I hope for his sake you figure that out soon.
This has turned into a train wreck, focused more on personalities than issues. Not IMHO territory.
Anyone choosing to explore this matter in more detail should do it elsewhere.
Closed.
TVeblen