Ms Who Said WHAT?

Teacher conferences are always so interesting.

The first one I went to for my eldest, Amy, boggled my mind. She was a child so aggressive that boys who were 12 and older on Payton in Detroit crossed the street so she couldn't bulldoze them with hugs. At two, she'd run up to them so hard, head down, and throw her little arms around their legs that she literally bowled them over!

In kindergarten, Ms Green said, "She's starting to come out of her shell a little bit."

WHAT??

Beckie was a preemie and took a year to catch up to all the guidelines that let parents know their child is "normal". She didn't sit up alone until she was over six months old, didn't crawl 'till her eleventh month... I was concerned she might have 'suffered' being premature. But then she walked on her first birthday and that gave me hope. The hammer fell not long after that though when she had a seizure - and then another - so she was put on medication that slowed her down and made her sleepy for four long years.

HER kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hasse, had her tested for the gifted program!?

Suzy, my third child (in 26 months!), locked horns early-on with her sister Amy for dominance. She somehow had the idea that, third or not, SHE was in charge of everyone?? Plus, she had a wicked satirical sense of humor that cut through all the crap; I like to credit her father with that 'inheritance'.

I took her to the district's preschool introduction and testing program where she proceeded to devastate the Romper Room specialist with withering stares (she didn't like her sing-songy voice) and polite refusals to participate in the activities all the other children were pursuing. At one point we parents were invited to join the group whereupon I willed her with my body language to JOIN ME and SHAPE UP. I thought we were on track but then the teacher laid down kid-sized sheets of butcher paper and suggested we parents trace around our child. Suzy looked directly into the woman's eyes and said, "Maybe my MOTHER'd like to lay down and I'll trace HER."

If looks could kill she would've been dead at 4.

Ms Peloni, HER teacher, suggested she was 'a little needy' and always in search of approval. SUSAN??

Beckie called this morning with the report on her two boys, Gret and Reece. Gret's in second grade and is every teacher's dream; he's smart and diligent and creative and charming and pleasant, helpful and kind to others. This was not a surprise.

But Beckie had the same feeling I did so often in talking to teachers, "Are you sure we're talking about REECE? Reece Radomski," she asked, flabbergasted, when the teacher described a boy Beckie barely recognized. A perfect boy. A boy who always behaved. A boy who never rebelled. A boy who never threw a fit or raised his voice. A boy who never stomped his feet. A boy the teacher would have loved to take home and call her own.

I remember my own mother once saying how she loved going to teacher conferences because otherwise she would never have believed she'd done ANYTHING right as a parent!!

That makes us three generations of the confused and dazed.

God Bless America!