Reminiscence

CNKelly (even though we don’t even work for the same company anymore, she will always be my CN in my heart) mentioned that her kid got into a little trouble at school and was really worked up about it, and I sent her this story to make her feel better about how upset Izzo was (way more upset than Kelly, that is):

 

I remember how bad I felt whenever I got in trouble, like the time I got threatened with the paddle for leaving the 2^nd-grade classroom without telling anyone. It was all Mrs. Harner’s fault. There had been several kids who went up to her and interrupted her reading circle to ask permission to go to the bathroom (uh, maybe stop what you’re doing and give the whole class a trip if that many kids are asking, lady) and while I was patiently waiting my turn, she actually said to the entire class, “If one more person comes up here and asks to go to the bathroom, I’m gonna scream.” And because I really hate it when people yell, I decided to save all of us the trouble and just left without saying anything. And when I came back upstairs, she and Mrs. Ware (the principal) were waiting at the top of the stairs with the paddle. And I explained the entire situation, and I can so imagine that inside Mrs. H was DYING when I explained my very literal logic, and Mrs. Ware was probably like, what the H is this lady saying in her classroom all the time? But they let her keep teaching even though she pointed her bony fingers with their wicked-long nails at us and yelled at us like that all the time. I saw her a couple of years ago and I was amazed at how tiny she was – this woman who had struck fear in my heart from the very first day in her class was all of about 4’11” and probably not a buck-o-five soaking wet. Ah, childhood.

 

And because I am totally qualified to give out parenting advice (based on my total lack of children) the thing I always say to my nephew Tommy is, “it’s hard to be good all the time, isn’t it?” and he says  “Yeah,” and I say, “but we still have to try.”