This is so unacceptable I don't even know where to start. Julian just can't control himself. The consequences we give him just don't make him stop to think or do what he's told.
But it's also frustrating that now we have to leave work for this. The tiniest thing he does in class now turns into a direct hit for us (today it was Dave), partly because his teacher is so fed up and she knows that as soon as he's started down the road of obnoxiousness, it's pretty hard to divert him. Today it started with Julian putting paper cups on his head, letting them fall, and laughing. Innocent enough, but he wouldn't stop, he was disrupting the class, and then kept disobeying his teacher. That used to mean an irritating email for us, but now it means having to drop everything at work and go retrieve him. It is such a struggle for both me and Dave to get in enough time at work as it is, we just can't leave work for this. It could happen every day -- we have less control over it than we do if someone gets sick. And some jobs, you can't just leave -- like, say, a teacher.
Do the principal and Julian's teacher know what a huge deal it is for one of us to have to miss potentially a whole day of work? They're used to most kids at our school having at least one parent, or someone else, at home, so it's not the major impact it is on us. In fact, when our overall very nice principal, who we both like, told us that if he gets sent to the office again that he'll get sent home, he didn't seem to recognize what a major leap that is. He almost said it the way you'd say, "the next time he does that, he'll lose two days of recess instead of one." But the difference between being sent to the office and being sent home is HUGE.
Then we have the problem of what to do with Julian. He has to stop this crap!! We're running out of ways to address the immediate problem (disobeying the school office staff), and laying a long-term foundation (counseling, talking to him) for him not to want to, or need to, disobey.
Add to that another morning of work I missed today. I went to see 3 dentists, lucky that the second two were able to see me with no notice. The last one is a TMJ specialist -- that's a jaw problem that many people have. It's not a big deal for your jaw to sort of click, but last Sunday it suddenly turned into a lot of pain chewing, and now I can't open my mouth very wide and can't chew at all. I'm glad to have a plan to solve it, but it's going to mean missing yet more work (xrays, physical therapy, then a bite-plate thing to correct my jaw misalignment). So I really really can't risk missing work because my son pestered his brother or put cups on his head, and neither can Dave.
12/8/2011
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