The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Gabe1]

My kid has missed 6-9 school days per year for vacations, so I’m with ya there!

The way it was explained is that parents are not allowed to do or mostly do their children’s reports.. we have to let it be their idea, we can provide a little direction, but the goal is for the kids to be in charge... to do the typing, choose the resources, understand the programs they’re using, etc. the “pledge” is just a formality to agree that we won’t be overbearing.

Even outside of the classroom in something like Cub Scouts, it is highly noticeable when the parents are the ones who made their son’s Pinewood Derby car.. maybe the kid put a sticker or painted a little of the base.

Yeah, I get the thought process. I'm doubtful that signing a 'pledge' is going to change the 'over achieving' parent work for those who are the ones doing homework or derby cars. I'm not really a pledge signing type of person if it is for religious, political or educational etc. purposes as I find it mind controlling.

It is just the way I roll, I wouldn't sign a pledge like that as it doesn't build a partnering in education or rapport with parents. The basic expectations are usually given at curriculum. Wonder if the parents got together and drew up their expectations for the teacher and requested the teacher sign their expectation pledge what that outcome would be? Our teachers union would likely have a fit.

 

[Gabe1]

I bought a 2 rolls of elastic from 2 different sellers on Amazon with no problem. That being said there's not much that could go wrong with white elastic.

I use Amazon enough. We have had a few counterfeit issues and several 'not as pictured' issues. That said the overwheming majority of things we've ordered came when predicted and were what we thought we were ordering.
I spend enough time in Brick & Mortar and where most of my dollars go but I am a big fan of what I can quickly find that on Amazon that is a hard find in stores.

 

[Gabe1]

So part of my job now involves inventorying the computers returned to the IT department. We had this computer returned. It was "dropped"

Spoiler: Disturbing images

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Ha! My son his freshman year of college dropped his going down a stone staircase. About what that looked like.
Dell had a very good repair/replacement fortunately they just sent him a new one. Amen. Laptops were still real pricey back then.

 

[Gabe1]

From where? The top of a sky scraper? From a highway overpass, in a vehicle traveling 75 mph?

Giggle.

 

[Gabe1]

sad but people like to shop online. I like to too (always love it when that happens) but I'm not addicted like some people. I would prefer to keep people in jobs. Sometimes when stores don't have my size (length, even then I have to get it hemmed) in clothing or product I want, I'll go to Amazon. Let's just say men's 7 inch shorts fit me just above the knee where they fit some mid thigh. I finally got shorts that fit me as proper shorts a couple years ago (of course, it had to be at JCrew). It couldn't be at a normal priced store like JC Penney.

I feel the same way about people employed, reason I don't do self check-out at Brick & Mortar Stores.

What people overlook about Amazon sometimes is the vast amount of Jobs they have created. Five years ago they already employed 32,000, by 2015 they were up to 223,000 employees and last year they were up to 341,000 employees and that is just their direct employees. The volume of packages carried by UPS, FedEx and US Post Office is the collateral employment. Further we could look at the companies that manufacture all of those Amazon Boxes and Envelopes that are used to ship products to us. The package tape manufactured. All of these firms have additional employees to meet the demand along with paper companies for packing or the air bubble packing. Amazon has their fair share of employee overhead we just fail to see most of them.

 

[Gabe1]

Me, too. I like a balanced approach to shopping.

That is where I am at. I have not been overly successful in ordering clothing or shoes online. It finally ended for me with Macy's when shoes #3 finally fit. It will be a while before that happens again likely.

Now stuff from Disney I could buy online but their shipping charges are ridiculous most of the year. Where the more $$$ you spend the more Disney charges for shipping where most retailers give you free after a certain dollar amount. At least a few times a year they offer deals or free shipping.

 

[Gabe1]

Bit harsh to label your dog as "special"

Giggle!

 

[Gabe1]

Me today View attachment 269211 Now we have a 2 hour delay due to the snow squalls. Tonight's dinner groundhog egg foo young and xanax

Wow! Wine and a sedative. Talk about a rough week. How was the Egg Foo Young?

 

[Gabe1]

This actually makes me want to cry. I made it a point to try and buy from TRUs at Christmas time. I always bought the baby stuff from Babies R Us. Amazon toy prices are generally more expensive than other stores and rarely buy toys from them. I read the article and it seems that a buyout in 2005 started the downfall. They couldn't keep up with debt. Poor management and probably a change in kids tastes with more of a move to digital toys led to this. Very, very sad.

My kids are older but I didn't see too much loss for them at Toys R Us because of video games or computer games, with my kids in the era of their childhood we had new companies come into our area called Target and Walmart. Neither were in my area when the first one was born but we had similar box store called Venture and KMart but Target really ramp'd up a softer feel to Box Stores that I saw earlier in my life. Me, its likely been 15 years since I have shopped at a KMart and can't even tell ya where one is in this area.

 

[Gabe1]

It also is bad because now there will be less competition. Who do you get toys from now? Target, Walmart, Amazon? Think about Wall-E. Everything eventually became Buy N Large. I think that is what Amazon is becoming. I try and avoid using them, but sometimes have no choice. Love/Hate relationship.

And Walmart has often been blamed for the Original Department Store Failures.

Me my sadness is in Brick and Mortar bookstores. I loved taking my kids book shopping. Them finding books that they 'wanted' to read was exciting.

 

[Gabe1]

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Your kid is never going to learn how to do something if you do it for them.

Yes. True.

Big difference is letting them keep making mistakes in their homework. If they aren't getting it you have to teach them where they are going wrong, the 'mistake' has already been accomplished. Learning to do it correctly should be the goal not failing to understand the concept over and over with mistake after mistake.

 

[Gabe1]

I just want to see flowers.. please let us see flowers soon.. and sunshine.. and warm.. just pleassse let winter be over!!

My DD and I will head to Chicago next week. They have their annual Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. Last year it was 70 degrees. That won't be happening this year though. It is my Ray of Sunshine for the Winter. Hear it was a high of 62 at WDW today. Not a great starting week for Flower and Garden or Spring Break. I'd take that today, highs in the 30s however 62 high in Florida brrrr....though 30 degrees warmer than what I had in December.

Edit: here is a lone little flower that popped up here 6 days ago outside the back door. In a month the balance of them will come to bloom, this little 'beauty' is just a tad early and was met by snow that night.

 

[Gabe1]

Hahaaa!!!
You remember my perfect shirt from our perfect cruise...!!!!!

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I do. My love of Flamingos. Thanks for remembering.

 

[Gabe1]

I get it, and I agree that some kids face a lot of pressure these days. The thing is though, if the kid expressed interest in the first place, then they have to know criticism and expectations come along with that.
T went thru a period a couple of months ago where he didn’t want to touch a soccer ball (he does a 15 minute foot skill video almost every day).. he refused to do the video, said he didn’t want to play any more, said he was “over playing soccer”. I was worried about burnout, extremely worried. However, we had to sit down and have a talk. He owes it to himself and his team to practice...he agreed to it. Most importantly, we talked about the rigorous requirements before he accepted the position. I told him that he took a spot that other kids wanted..that he and I both made a huge commitment. If he wants to quit after this season, fine. But it’s not fair to either one of us if he sits out all season because he’s not putting in the effort.

He snapped out of it, thankfully..and he’s once again obsessed. That was a rough week and rough conversations though.. but sometimes parents have to make their kids realize what they agreed to.
Yes, I’m sure what I did was “pressure”..but if my child commits to something, and I make a big financial and time commitment to something, then he’s going to do what he agreed to, which is full commitment, not just showing up. If he gives half-effort during his drills at home- I make him start over, and remind him that incorrectly done drills will harm more than hurt. It’s an age old debate of if that kind of competitiveness at the level is healthy for that age.. but besides that one week, he has absolutely loved it.
If at the end of the Spring Season he doesn’t want to try out again and go back to SAY, great. I feel bad for the pressure that kids are under, but some of them are choosing it, and they can thrive in it. Hopefully for us that one week was just a blip.
I’ve talked to other parents in the club who’s kids have gone thru a similar stage, I don’t hear anyone who would keep their kid if they don’t want to continue after the season. It would be too much on the parents and the child to have that kind of battle constantly.

I had a similar moment with my son between 5th and 6th grade summer club for swimming. My opinion is you have to be something. You have to be apart of something. I'm not a fan of children being loners, you need to fit and belong somewhere. Be something. It had been swimming for years. He didn't like soccer, he liked baseball but he knew he was only mediocre at it and would be cut soon. Same with Club Golf.

He came to me begging to drop swimming. He'd go back to Soccer in the Fall. (yeah right) It was the beginning of June. I said fine. He could continue with swimming over the summer (cause he wasn't sitting on the couch all summer as some middle schoolers do) and I'd register him for soccer for the fall. It had nothing to do with falling out of love with swimming. He aged up. His practice was now at 545am over 8am like before and when his sister went in the water. So after a long hard summer of dragging his tushie out of bed at 515am every morning he didn't want to do do soccer as I thought. He was fine with his choice of 6pm-8pm swim club indoor practice over soccer outside in the cold.

Sometimes we as parents just have to read between the lines. Is it the sport or a different cause, my son...going to bed earlier than he would like to be awake at 515am during summer vacation. It was his sport through high school. My kids could have gone swimming for college and Div 3 scholarships, they both were done after high school. Me I was fine with that. It served its purpose. For my kids especially my DD Div 3 would have been a step backwards for her educational goals. Son was better off where he finally landed in the University he graduated from. His degree had more meaning from where he graduated from. Swimming ended but remains a big part of their adult lives. Sometimes we parents actually know what we are doing. As did many of our parents.

 

[Gabe1]

I make my boys do all their own work. That being said if they don't understand something I will help them and give them other examples but I will not work on the actual question at hand. Yes I'm the mean mommy that sends my kids in with hand made posters that are obviously done totally by them and that has not hurt their grades. I believe most teachers at least here are hip to which kids do their own work. I may have mentioned this before but one of my older ds' teachers had the entire class read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by themselves out loud in class because it was the book voted on in the class. They made it through the whole book. This in a class where most of them Dr Seuss was about all they had read before. That being said it took forever but they were rewarded with a Harry Potter party day where they she made "butter beer" and the parents supplied some of the food from the book. They also got to watch the movie.

Depends. Science fair start to finish there own. Spelling. If they were spelling the word wrong as they wrote it 10 times to reinforce I had them start over. Learning and reinforcing errors in learning seemed counter intuitive. I'd show them where they went wrong and repeated. Why practice and reinforce the mistake. Zero value.

 

[Gabe1]

Rant starts here * I have 4 people out already today, all with very good reasons. And then I get a text that someone can't make it, because her husband took her keys this morning. What I really want to say is you are a grown @$$ woman. Figure it out. What I am doing is waiting until I can text her back to say OK, see you Monday! That is what her other supervisor sent. ( yeah, she is not showing up for 2 schools, and she works a bus route.) Right now, I can't do that without feeling physically ill.

Okay rant over. Thank you all for letting me vent.

Blah! Rant on. And I understand your pain. {{{{HUGS}}}} Seriously Uber or a Taxi.

We have more of an issue with crossing guards here. Dangerous roads children should never be crossing on their own yet dedication to the responsibility is hit or miss. It is not a an easy position to fill. One hour at a time 3 times a day. You are hemmed into being a guard pretty much all day but for only 3 hours a day. Get that. Still it is critical.

Yep the district could easily fire them but who the heck is going to fill that position when unemployment is at 4%. Funny what 9 years of a good economy will do. I'm an advocate of making it part of a full time position but varied responsibilities, from being an aide, to lunchroom or crossing guard duties. $15 an hour and benefits. Likely can get all the needs filled and attract more candidates given more hours than 3. Hard sell. Still have not heard of better solutions.

 

[Gabe1]

Sometimes a day off is also a public service action to anyone who would have to deal with us.. get some sleep!

I every once in a while called it a mental health day. I stole that phrase from my Mom, a teacher. Some days for her were so overwhelming she just needed a day to regroup. She took her profession seriously and some day either her colleagues got to her or her students and needed a day.

 

[Gabe1]

As the date of opening gets close. You will still get tons of crowds of those fanboys hoping to ride in the softopenings and testing phases.

It is beyond ridiculous. Honestly, they are taking lottery applications for the reopening of the World of Disney and Special Hours just to be the first to buy stuff in a store. When I got that 'offer' as a Annual Pass holder I was like seriously? I have to apply to enter your store and have the privilege of being able to be the first to make a purchase. Really? Really? This isn't a long overdue attraction, it is a freak'n store where my experience is only buying something. I just want to scream at my fellow pass holders....stop encouraging them.

 

[Gabe1]

Perhaps that school uses the method of Montessorri?
I went to that kind of school for 1 year when I was young, and technically they put all the tools around you and the teachers encourage you to check things by yourself then the teacher helps you out with that.

Montessori in my area is a very loosely defined educational definition. We have a Korean based school here that is that but open to everyone. If the teacher is teaching math and you don't 'feel it' you get to get up and go to the back of the room and engage yourself as a student in free time learning. I looked into the school as a daycare for my DD and deemed with that wide spectrum of free-form choice they'd be raising a bunch of idiots.

 

[Gabe1]

I am still awake as I have 2 accesses to cable and or internet here. Both were down. Fooling around with both freak'n woke me up. 1 internet never came back up, cable never came back up, but one internet did so I could at least pull up netflix. At least I have data on my phone.

Amazing how tech agravation wakes ya right the heck back up. And tomorrow is the start of Early Day Starts.
*pouts*