Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Good thing you did not say that to her mother

This morning, after running some errands, the kids and I headed over for some pre-lunch park time. The Talker recognized a girl that he has only played with once. I could not remember her name, but the boy has great recall of names. Last time she was at the park with her grandmother, this time she was with her other granny.

Today's grandma asked if I was "the stay at home dad her daughter told her about". Since Other Dad lives right across the street from her daughter, I assumed she was mistaking me for him. The she explained that she has already met him. I was even more confused by her comment, but The Princess fell hard and cried, so I never got around to asking what she meant. Plus, the kids were having fun, and she was not running out of the park with her granddaughter, so I did not worry about it.

Later though, she hit me with a doozy. The Princess was trying to play with the buckles on the little girl's stroller. Also, she figured out where the snacks were stored, under the stroller, so my human grackle was not moving. Not until someone shared that snack.

Granny told me that she is a retired gifted and talented high school teacher. And that it is "obvious that your girl will need gifted services in school. Especially if you do a good job getting her ready for school."

What? Huh? Who the heck are you? You are such a great high school teacher that you can assign labels to 18 month old kids? Damn, pretty pretentious, dontcha think, lady? I am glad those smart kids in Dallas got to benefit from your insight and wisdom. Bitch.

I have no doubt that my kids will be smarterer than me. It would be hard for them not to be. But this is the same thing as someone telling me that the boy is a good candidate for a ritalin and focusin cocktail every morning with his breakfast.

I never have held gifted/talented teachers in very high regard. Probably goes back to me being left with the other kids while the geniuses got to benefit from the best learning methods. Or maybe I just think that kids need to be educated with their peers. All of them. Even the dumb ones. And the one eating paste in the back of the room.

Well, maybe not all of them. Keep the ugly kids away from mine. I don't want that stuff rubbing off on my beautiful little genius darlings.

6 comments:

Mike said...

No, I did not actually say that to granny. I just thought it.

But I bet she would have ended up with a bloody nose if The Boss Lady had heard her commentary.

Mike said...

And The Boss Lady says I am not allowed to complain about the ugly kids in the school.


So I won't. Maybe I'll gripe about smelly kids instead...

Anonymous said...

I'm totally with you on this. It's important that our kids get to know the kid eating the paste, I did and he turned out to be pretty cool even if he wasn't a genius.
I liked my kids' elementary and middle schools because they didn't really separate the kids. But now that CB is in high school I'm just amazed at the segregation I'm seeing. Not a good thing I think.

Rick said...

I can't believe you could get bent out of shape over some old lady complimenting your kid.

She probably says that to every parent, like the ChemLawn guy tells everyone their yard looks good.

Or like the choir director telling me how well I sing.

I had a point I was going to make but I forgot what it was.

I am hungry. Time for another bottle of Elmers.

Mike said...

Oh, I can get bent out of shape, alright. It was mainly a problem because of the elitist, snobish tone of her declaration.

That and the fact that the girl is only 18 months old. I don't want to assign anything to her future at 18 months. I tend to think my kids are open books at this age.

THat , and I WAS the kid with the paste, remember?

Mike said...

But maybe you are right, Rick. She probably just meant it as a compliment.

But the wife would have given her an earful, anyways.