The rest of week 2 in review

You may have read my post, Not even remotely getting it right and wondered what happened after that. Or, you might have thought FFS, we are all in the same boat, get over it.

Regardless. Here is the rest of the week. Week 2, days 2-5.

Tuesday: Moved the boy child into my office to prevent further punch ups. Printed of his schedule so he didn’t need to keep going back to the iPad when he changed tasks. We worked out a strategy of his “must dos” and listed what he needed to finish from his unproductive Monday. My phone doesn’t stop ringing, I cannot get anything done, I am replying to emails, but my productivity is low. I have parent forums to attend. BC9 nailed Tuesday. Check in with girl child. She is sitting in arm chair, using iPad to draw. As this is normal behaviour, I challenge whether she is doing school work. She is working on a comic about Anti Bullying. I feel like a bully. Next thing GC11 comes rushing in. There is something wrong with the cat. I am irate. I don’t need the interuption. I check the cat. Oh hell, there IS something wrong. I ring vet. They are booked out because all of us stay at home people are killing our pets with kindness taking them for walks they have never been on, and giving them love they have never had. I am invited to come and sit in the carpark until vet can see cat. He has UTI and now needs twice a day medication. I refrain from shoving a dirty plate down dear husband’s throat when I get home to find that none of them have lifted a finger since I left for my 2 hour vet visit.

Wednesday: I am freaking out. Last Wednesday was HARD. This week I am doing it solo. No husband to father his children. We set the ground rules early. I can’t keep BC9 in my office because I have to talk for hours in Zoom to my students and facilitate their forums when they are offline.  We get up in time, I set the rules. I finish the stuff I didn’t get done yesterday while they eat breakfast. I have one in the kitchen, one in the lounge room. They make promises that they will be angels today, and I don’t believe them. Morning tea is thrust in front of them. I get in trouble for making lunch earlier than their lunch time. I explain as best I can that this is not about them. It sounds like this “Oh for fuck sake, you think you are the only fucking person who has shit to do? Just don’t fucking eat it until 1:30, I really don’t care, I need to go back to work, it’s not all about you”. I am being a bully. The rest of the day goes reasonably well, they acheive their goals and sound like they are having a fun day. 

Thursday: Need to go get my flu needle. Try to do morning check in. Grade 4 is not working. BC9 gets anxious. Assure him it will be fine I will email Mrs S. I try one more time and she is online, says she had tech problems and tells our kid to stop stressing. Get them organised, BC9 brings his book along in the car to do his 15 minutes of independent reading while I get jabbed. We do a quick shop while we are out as we have no milk, no bread and need doughnuts, milkshakes and coffee. I have moved BC9 back into my office and we are so productive it is scary. Lists are ticked all over the place. BC9 is practicing his Italian. He googles “thank you for letting me have an apple”, we practice this sentence, I ask Google to translate my Italian back into English. I say “Grazie per avermi permesso di avere una mela”, Google tells me I said “your penis is too large for me”. Tears spring to my eyes, I shut down Google, I can’t breathe I am laughing so hard. BC9 asks what is so funny. I tell him a white lie. I say “google said your penis is too large” he thinks this is funny, but I still can’t stop laughing with the full truth. He is going to write in his journal that when mum tried to google her Italian it came up a private part. My face aches for the rest of the day. The bullying comic is still in progress, she won’t show it to me, I wonder whether the main character looks me?

Friday: End of the week. I am sitting in on morning check in. Grade 4 children have forgotten the rule about not speaking over the teacher and keeping their microphones turned off. We get through that and it is immediately followed by Anzac meeting. I go looking for a poppy, I know I have some, but with everything packed away, I cannot find them. I look in Grandma’s drawers and find a ribbon for him to wear. The 3 teachers do a brilliant job of their Anzac presentation. I find myself singing Advance Australia Fair for the second time this week. Sorry neighbours, lucky you don’t live too close. After this I need to know what the ribbon was for. I google it. It is a widow/mother’s ribbon from WW1. I print off the information and photo Grandma had me write up for Anzac day a few years ago of Grandma’s uncle Tom and give it to BC with the explanation, you, me, nan, great grandma, her uncle. We share a moment when he learns that his great, great, great uncle Tom survived the landing at Gallipoli, was promoted to a commissioned rank on 28th April 1915, but supposedly never learned of his promotion, dying on 8th May in a shell attack. There seems to be a lot of Just Dance going on today. Like a bit more than just morning exercise, but who cares it’s Friday and I have a wine meeting at 4pm to look forward to. They “swear” that they have completed all of their must dos and the Grade 6 check in meeting is earlier that usual. I am not nagging, I don’t want to be a bully.