Adventures of Two Sisters, One Brother, and a Mom: Notes...

It's funny, I read other people's blogs about their lives, and their children and they all seem so happy and peaceful... I've noticed that lately my blog primarily documents the chaos of my family. Unfortunately, that is all that I seem to have to write about now--chaos, clutter, screaming, hyperactivity, disobedience.

This school thing is really stressing me out. So far this week, I have gotten two notes home about my children's misbehavior in class. Monday's note concerned Big A and her disruption of the class with noises and a loud voice. Today's note was about D-- he hit a student and continues to disobey/ignore the instructions of the teacher. Wonderful. The note has to be signed by the parent and returned to the teacher the next day. Guess what? I'm the parent. Instead, with each note, I feel like I am getting chastised. I feel like the notes indicate that I have poor parenting skills, and my children's misbehavior is a direct reflection of my abilities as a Mother. Guess I'm getting an "Unsatisfactory" this week.

The other bad thing about these notes is that they bring back memories of my elementary school days--back in my day we got paddlings and got our desks put in the "coat closet" for disrupting the class. I should know, I spent the better part of first grade sitting back there, and Ms. Brown paddled me in the hall several times. So... as you may imagine these notes bring back unhappy memories and reduce me to feeling like a rebellious, bored first grader. And the rebellious child in me wants to wad the notes up and throw them in the trash. But, of course, I don't. Instead, I sit down my rebellious bored Kindergartners and have a serious talk with them about how to behave in class, and how they should respect and listen to the Teacher. In D's case, I am talking "at" him because he is wiggling around, looking in every direction but mine, and basically ignoring every word I say.... Can we say ADHD?!?

It all seems so fruitless. I know that Big A will continue to have dramatic fits at school, and I'm beginning to think D will never catch up -- or even attempt to catch up. I just feel like when I walk around in public, people are looking at me thinking "What a terrible mother.." I really do try to get these children under control-- sometimes I feel like a Drill Sargent. I would challenge anyone to spend a week with my children and not completely lose their sanity. Seriously. They certainly are all "spitting images" of me-- even D, who is not even genetically related to me. How ironic is that? I can't even adopt a kid without an attitude!!!

Anyway, I've signed the damn notes and threatened my children with punishments. Tomorrow may be better, who knows....

On a lighter note, here are some photos from our visit to South Carolina this weekend...

My Misunderstood Clone! :)