Tarnishing My Golden Child

I have this child who burst forth from my womb and was nothing but perfection. An Easy child. Brilliant. Perfectly Potty trained by 3. Teachers adored him. Helpful. Kind.

Yesterday, there was an "incident" with a teacher at school.

My initial response was the "mother bear" response. The Golden One pleaded with me not to; it'll make things worse.

My second instinct was to advise him to fly under the radar for the last two weeks of school. That's what got me through unscathed.

But as I thought about this kid, the amazing person-in-progress, who beats himself up every time he is a penny short of perfect ... I went another way.

I told him to be a trouble maker and not worry about it. I told him to get me at least one "incident" note per week until school is out. Stir stuff up. What's the worst that could happen? Write an apology? No problemo. Detention? Yay! Quiet reading time. Expulsion? Stay home and play.

Teaching is a hard and frustrating job. You feel like the parents don't even care about the kids, about you, anything but posting on their blogs. But if you tell a parent your kid is the best in the class and you wish you had a whole class just like him, but the kid is pretty sure you hate him and has decided it is better to just not speak at all in school cuz it just makes things worse ... Grrrrr.... Thats all I can say. Grrr. Red stapler grrr.

Be a trouble maker, my Golden One.