Dark confession

[Mommy22alyns]

I think I would be a really bad public school parent.

 

Does anyone else feel this way?

 

I mean, I would probably get lazy about the girls' education if they went to school.

[swellmomma]

I was one but not because I was lax about their education. I was just one of *those* parents that the teachers hate because I wanted to be so involved in their educations. I was very involved in the "normal" routes, as in I was on the PTA, I was room mother in both of their classrooms, BUT I also wanted to know specifically what was taught each day so that I could help them review it, and why things were being taught thway they were etc. The teachers prefered I stuck to helping where they wanted on my day in the room and on the pta and just leave teh rest up to them. My dd's grade 1 teacher also told me to stop teaching them at home after school because I was just making it harder on the future teachers that would have to teach her (dd was bored because she already knew the gr 1 curriculum when she went so I challenged her after school).

 

The one things we were terrible with was lateness. The school was 30 minutes from home, with 3 kids with ADHD meant no matter how early we got up we just could not get there on time.

[Samiam]

Ha, I was just thinking about this the last few days, as we seriously contemplate DS13 education options for next year, what an annoying parent I may be.

 

I was thinking about the questions I would ask the guidance counselor when we take a tour of the local high school (do people really tour the high school, because I plan to, lol!). How can I know his daily assignments, how can I contact the teachers with questions, how can I have access to his grades, because progress reports every quarter won't cut it for me. How do we sign him up for any AP or otherwise advanced classes. What curriculum is used for the classes? When do signups for clubs start? Etc etc etc etc.

[Caroline]

Ha, I was just thinking about this the last few days, as we seriously contemplate DS13 education options for next year, what an annoying parent I may be.

 

I was thinking about the questions I would ask the guidance counselor when we take a tour of the local high school (do people really tour the high school, because I plan to, lol!). How can I know his daily assignments, how can I contact the teachers with questions, how can I have access to his grades, because progress reports every quarter won't cut it for me. How do we sign him up for any AP or otherwise advanced classes. What curriculum is used for the classes? When do signups for clubs start? Etc etc etc etc.

 

Those are all reasonable questions that the vast majority of public school parents ask when touring high schools. Nothing out of the ordinary.

[Sputterduck]

I wouldn't be lazy about it, but I still would be a horrible public school parent. Horrible. I couldn't do it. I'd be a mess trying to get him out the door early in the morning, freaking out about what he isn't learning and isn't doing, fretting that he is wasting his time when at home he does work years ahead of his age. I'd buck under the weight of the rigid schedule as well. UGH

 

Actually, I was a bad public school parent! My son was in a public charter school for homeschool families. They went half a day on Wednesdays. I was constantly asking, "Why are they reading counting books that teach 1 to 10 to 5-7 year olds?" "Why do the books they have as part of the K curriculum have No Words in them at all? My son can read fluently. Why should we waste our time on this?" "Why is there no supervision during lunch when kids are trading food even though there are allergic children in this class, including my child?" Even with all that the teachers seemed to like me. I finally asked if we could skip all the classes except the farm class. They actually had a working farm. Now *that* was worth our time. They said that was perfectly fine and we were happy there the rest of our time there. :)

Edited September 29, 2011 by Sputterduck

[butterflymommy]

I was a terrible (private) school parent. I forgot events-- even major events-- never signed their assignment books (one DD just started faking my initials), rarely checked homework, sent them to school with uncombed hair, untied shoes, forgot to pay for lunch months at a time. I sometimes forgot to send lunches (2 brought bag lunch) or sent lunches that would make people cluck their tongues. I never did fund raisers, never contributed things for bake sales, sometimes didn't even pick up report cards! But my kids always did very well in school grade wise, at or near the top of their class. I am just so pathetically unorganized that it was all I could do to physically get them to school and pick them up at the end of the day.

[dangermom]

I am pretty sure that I would be terrible at public school parenting. I would forget to make them do their homework, because in the late afternoon school is over. I would not make them nice lunches. I would fail to volunteer to do things. All sorts of stuff.

[Farrar]

I'd be wretched at it. Not only would I forget to make them do their homework or be a good volunteer, I would go about saying nasty undermining things about school. I would probably get in fights with the teacher.

 

Plus, it would just be bad for my health. I joked the other day that sure, I lose income by homeschooling, but if I had to put the kids in school, I'd need to consider the therapy and possibly the legal bills that would result.

[mothergooseof4]

Late dh and I had step-dd in ps for K and 1st. I hated it, but didn't know any better at the time. I am an introvert and hate volunteering. I would not do PTA or teacher's helper or whatever. I really didn't want to go to award ceremonies, but did only to support step-dd. I also resented having to follow their schedule when I had other things to do......at the time it was the fact that I had to wake my baby in the middle the nap time that he naturally fell into so that I could go pick up his sis. We started hsing step-dd after her 1st grade year.

 

Now, after hsing for 11 years, I would REALLY make a bad ps parent. I am still an introvert LOL, so PTA and volunteering at the school would still be out for me. I would balk at their schedule since I am accustomed to schooling around life instead of living around school. I would resent homework since I could probably have most of our hs finished in about the same amount of time. I am not going to do fund raisers....ummmm, we pay school taxes already. One of my kids would melt in a classroom setting and mama bear would be very angry cuz I know the teacher couldn't possibly deal with him in the manner he needs to be handled. I would constantly be in an uproar over the values in the curriculum, adults, and other children and how that would infringe on the values we are trying to establish in our children.

 

Oh, it would be ugly!

[elegantlion]

I was a horrid mother when ds was in private school. I had to yell every morning to get the non-morning person out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast before you're eyes are open. I was not born to be a drill sergeant.

 

Now? I would be horrible. I'd be walking in late with him half the time with excuses why he was there at 7:52 instead of 7:50. I'd probably agree that his homework was busy work and still make him do it, becoming a bad mom again.

 

I'd refuse fundraisers, and I hate volunteering. I'd want to take him out for more days than they'd allow and then fight them about too many absences.

 

Yup, I think the public schools are glad that we homeschool. Oh the blessings they don't even know about.:lol:

[BigMamaBird]

I'd be a wretched PS parent!!

 

I have a major rebellious streak and didn't do well in school when I was a student. I can't imagine how awfully I'd react to all the nonsense they have in PS now. :glare:

[Alicia64]

 

I mean, I would probably get lazy about the girls' education if they went to school.

 

Exactly. Lazy, perfect word. And uneducated about all that I could be doing w/ and for my kids.

 

Homeschooling has been a learning curve, but the best learning curve I've ever been on.

 

Btw, I think schools foster so called "laziness" in parents. It makes the parents easier to deal with, more malleable. Strong parents must be a total PITA for them!

 

Alley

[Heather in Neverland]

Well how about this one...

 

I am the PRINCIPAL at my kids' school and I am a bad school mom!!!! :lol::lol:

 

I am a great principal and I hold the parents of my students accountable for all the things that I do NOT do well myself... like remembering permission slips, or signing their homework books, or making them do their homework, etc. etc. And I am always checking up on what is going on in their lessons to see if I approve. It takes everything I have in me NOT to scoff at some of their homework assignments in front of my kids.

 

I am awful.

 

Dreadful.

 

Terribly embarrassed.

 

But it is true. :tongue_smilie:

[Chris in VA]

I AM a lousy school parent. I don't do PTA, fundraising or volunteering.

Not sure why--maybe I'm just pissed that they don't already have enough people involved, tax money and so on. Maybe I'm disappointed that she has to go to school, and don't want to be reminded. IDK.

I do help with homework (she has 1.5 hours nearly every night, now that she's in 6th grade), turn forms in on time, get her there on time, etc.

[angela in ohio]

Btw, I think schools foster so called "laziness" in parents. It makes the parents easier to deal with, more malleable. Strong parents must be a total PITA for them!

 

Not around here. Schools put all of information about grades and assignments online, they hold parent meetings with free food :D, they practically beg parents to get involved. Few do, but the school is trying. I would thing the "lazy" parents are usually the problem ones: they require more time to track down for problems with their student, they don't turn forms in, their dc are late to school, etc.

 

Ha, I was just thinking about this the last few days, as we seriously contemplate DS13 education options for next year, what an annoying parent I may be.

 

I was thinking about the questions I would ask the guidance counselor when we take a tour of the local high school (do people really tour the high school, because I plan to, lol!). How can I know his daily assignments, how can I contact the teachers with questions, how can I have access to his grades, because progress reports every quarter won't cut it for me. How do we sign him up for any AP or otherwise advanced classes. What curriculum is used for the classes? When do signups for clubs start? Etc etc etc etc.

 

Those are all common questions, you would be fine. They would be covered in the handbook, most likely, and so you could read that before your tour. Many schools have an online system for assignments and grades, but really at the high school level, your student should be able to know and tell you his assignments and how he is doing.

Edited September 29, 2011 by angela in ohio

[MrsJewelsRae]

I would be horrible! I would really resent the piles of homework that kids seem to get these days, especially since they've already been gone at school all day, I'd want them to have fun and relax after hours! We'd have too many sick days for sure, as my dd has asthma, and I would hate to send my kids to school when they are still sick but well enough to put one foot in front of the other, kwim? It's one thing to sit at your own table in your jammies and get some homeschooling done when you're under the weather, but another when you have to be up and at 'em, dressed, out the door and have a full day of school.

I must admit, I might have trouble with other people telling my kids what to do. I mean, I teach them to respect authority, but when a teacher gives homework over the holidays, or a big parent involved project on a long weekend, I would be ticked off and would have a hard time hiding my annoyance from my kids. There would be times I would chose life over homework, especially "busy work".

[leeannpal]

Well how about this one...

 

I am the PRINCIPAL at my kids' school and I am a bad school mom!!!! :lol::lol:

 

I am a great principal and I hold the parents of my students accountable for all the things that I do NOT do well myself... like remembering permission slips, or signing their homework books, or making them do their homework, etc. etc. And I am always checking up on what is going on in their lessons to see if I approve. It takes everything I have in me NOT to scoff at some of their homework assignments in front of my kids.

 

I am awful.

 

Dreadful.

 

Terribly embarrassed.

 

But it is true. :tongue_smilie:

I am a teacher at my daughter's private school. Like other mothers, I sometimes forget to have dd wear the uniform on chapel days, forget to sign the homework book or leave a signed paper at home. It happens.

[Sahamamama]

I think I would be a really bad public school parent.

 

Does anyone else feel this way?

 

I mean, I would probably get lazy about the girls' education if they went to school.

 

I would be a bad PS parent, but not because I'd become lazy. For me, it's more a matter of being.... non-conforming? rebellious? non-institutionalizable?

 

:D I think the system itself would drive me crazy.

[Mommyfaithe]

I was a terrible (private) school parent. I forgot events-- even major events-- never signed their assignment books (one DD just started faking my initials), rarely checked homework, sent them to school with uncombed hair, untied shoes, forgot to pay for lunch months at a time. I sometimes forgot to send lunches (2 brought bag lunch) or sent lunches that would make people cluck their tongues. I never did fund raisers, never contributed things for bake sales, sometimes didn't even pick up report cards! But my kids always did very well in school grade wise, at or near the top of their class. I am just so pathetically unorganized that it was all I could do to physically get them to school and pick them up at the end of the day.

 

How are you doing with homeschooling?? :confused: do you find it easier? Are you more organized because you have to be? I am asking because I really want to know.

 

I was a terrible public school mom because I was a big pain in the collective @sses. Seriously. I made them nuts. My kids could already read....they hated that. I was always in the school...making copies, being the room mom, sitting in the hall with the " bad kids" etc. I figured if I was going to spend all hours at the school, I might as well just teach them myself. :D

 

Faithe...who has relaxed a whole lot since then.

[suppleasthewind]

I was a public school parent for a few years. I wanted to know everything that the boys did at school. The dynamic teachers who loved their jobs loved me. The teachers who were less than thrilled to be there did not like me.

 

Then I was a private school parent for three months and just couldn't keep up with the homework, sales, meetings, uniforms, signing stuff, etc.

 

The one thing I started to really resent as a public or private school parent was the shopping. I was tired of repeatedly going to the store for supplies, snacks, etc.