EVILFLU

Showing posts with label EVILBOY. Show all posts

After a very strange/snowy/emotional weekend (in which I got questioned for murder), I decided we had to celebrate Family Day this year. Usually Family Day is just an extra day to veg out and binge on Netflix (OMG do you watch Wentworth??) - usually in separate rooms (I vowed to never watch Mall Cop again in my whole entire life after having to endure it twice in the theatre. It just so happens that Mason loves Mall Cop). It's an unfortunate situation.

This year, after being trapped inside due to a snowstorm and my neighbour's murder, I figured it was a good year to start a tradition where we will never stay home for Family Day again. Not that there's anything wrong with staying home - it's just so easy to pass an entire day without even really acknowledging that the other is there.

I let Mason decide on an activity to do in the community. I had a few rules: no crowds and low cost. Mason came up with the great idea of tobogganing. I was so in to it, until I remembered I had donated his sled to the Goodwill because he outgrew it.

Then he suggested skating...and I was shocked.

When I was in grade school, every week they would make us go to the arena next door and skate for an hour or so. It was torture! I hated being cold. I hated having to carry the gear to school every week. I was lucky I even owned a proper pair of skates that my mother didn't Macguyver up for me. I just hated that feeling of my feet burning off when I took off my skates. I never learned to properly skate because my teacher always picked on me and I got frustrated and gave up. Kind of like the time my dad tried to teach me how to park a boat. I got frustrated and never learned how to park a boat (Tip: never let me drive your boat).

Mason goes to the same school I went to and is lucky to get to attend these "fun" skating trips When he recommended skating as an activity, I realized that he has not been tortured enough at the arena because who in their right mind would want to freeze and skate around in a circle for an hour.

We have a couple of options when it comes to free outdoor skating in my city. It's really quite impressive because the ice is full of people who don't mind frostbite...or circles. A lot of people had the idea to take their families skating on Family Day (go figure) but that didn't stop Mason from lacing up and joining them on the ice. I stayed on the sidelines, watching nervously, because I like my feet being warm(ish) and not falling and breaking my ass in front of a good portion of the population of London.

As he clumsily made himself around that ice pad I felt something (other than frostbite creeping into my Uggs) - I felt proud. He wasn't the best skater out there, but he tried. He made his way around in circles, dodging little Ice Capades champions - or so I assumed they were anyway - and tried his best to stay on two skates. He certainly was a lot better than I was at skating. In fact, he only fell once when I distracted him to smile for the camera.

Next year we hopefully can do something where both of us can participate - and hopefully something a little warmer. I think it was a pretty successful excursion though. Mason had a lot of fun showing off his skating skills and I didn't freeze to death (although my iPhone did - boo).

My son has been diagnosed with a learning disability.

I feel like I should be a little more in shock. A little guiltier for the things I may have done to cause this. Maybe a little angrier at the cards we’ve been dealt – but the truth is, I’m kind of relieved.

This has been a long, hard process. There has been so much frustration and tears along this journey, so to finally have it come to an end is a huge relief. I almost jumped for joy when the diagnosis was explained, which I know seems like a fairly odd reaction, but the first thing that came to mind was that he will finally get the help he needs and deserves.

Being a single working parent made this process even tougher. I would get notes from teachers asking me to read more with my son. I’ve been asked to do worksheets upon worksheets with him to help him catch up to the other students. The truth is, when I get home from work I am tired. I have to make dinner, clean up, spend time with my child by doing worksheets – it just wasn’t working! The last thing any child wants to do when he finally gets to be in his own environment after a long day is do more of the work that frustrated him all day long. It was rough, he didn’t retain any of the information on these worksheets – we butted heads over it until I finally said enough is enough.

We found little ways here and there to incorporate lessons into everyday life, but it was never enough – none of this information seemed to be sticking. I’ve always felt like the teachers thought I wasn’t doing enough to help him, and it bothered me, but I felt very strongly that forcing him to do more work when he already was at a disadvantage in the classroom all day long, was not benefiting anyone – especially our sanity. Even though it sounds like I was making the wrong decision, I still stand by this decision completely.

The education system is a strange little thing. My son was diagnosed with a Central Auditory Processing Disorder one year ago. At that time, an FM system was recommended. I was informed by a school board representative that the TRIAL of the FM system would not be permitted until my son had psychology testing completed. He waited for one year on an IEP and finally had psychology testing completed in April (two months from the end of the school year). Now that he has been diagnosed with a learning disability (it was explained to me that it is something like dyslexia), he is no longer eligible for an FM system. Which seems kind of silly to me – after all, this is only a trial to see if he would benefit from this device. It’s the odd rules like this that are hard to wrap my mind around, but I’m still all really new to this exceptional student/special education thing.

So even though the diagnosis is not so great, I have a greater understanding of what my child is dealing with. I now know for sure that he is not “lazy”. I know for sure that I am not a bad parent and that I didn’t read to him enough. He has special needs that we will have to adjust our lives to, but knowing how to adjust our lives makes me feel pretty optimistic. Things can only get better from here.

Thank you for fearing my child's safety at home.

Thank you for making a call (without getting the entire story) and changing someone's life forever.

Thank you for giving me a panic attack at work.

Thank you for making me feel like the worst parent in the world.

Thank you for making me feel like needed to organize my entire house. I spent a night cleaning my closets, rather than spending some of our already limited quality time with my son, because I was afraid.

You threatened my son with suspension. You made him upset in front of his friends and you took the word of a child with a documented language disability and reported your information to the authorities.

What I want to know is how it felt to make that call. Were you proud? were you just "doing your job". Did you go home to your perfect home and talk about the poor child you saved on the playground today?

Its not fair of me to assume I know all about your life, which ironically you should have thought the same before you made that call.

If you would have asked I could have told you a little about us. We live in a two bedroom apartment. I have been raising my son alone since 2005 when his father passed away from cancer. I work full-time and I suport my child all on my own - meaning no government assistance, not even survivor benefits because unfortunately we were not entitled to such luxuries because get this - his father - who had cancer for four years - did not work enough hours. We are far from rich, but we make it work.

I have some great support from family and friends and I have a very understanding workplace that allows me to bring my son to work.

Sometimes we really struggle. I have to say no to trips and Pizza Day, but I make up for it with trips to arcades and skate parks and crazy adventures. We see all the superhero movies the day they come out because I am good at saving up points and coupons for the movie theatre.

We recentIy got into going to Comic Cons (where we both dress up like superheroes and act like fools). People who endanger their children generally don't spend hours building costumes, getting second degree glue gun burns multiple times, just to be a parent who would harm their child.

I am there for him as much as a single working parent can be. I listen to his endless Minecraft stories. I chuckle to myself at his 10 year old vent fests about the kids in his class and I feel helpless when he cries about missing his dad - but I am there - to be reassuring.

Maybe you would have known these things if you asked, rather than threatened a frightened child.

Even though you made me miss time from work (which ironically I don't get paid for, which means this week is going to be even more tough), you gave me a tarnished reputation at the school we've been at for years (I even went to this school) and you brought an investigation into my home, I have to say thank you.

Thank you for the looks on peoples faces when I told them what you did.

Thank you for allowing me to hear the reassurance and encouragement from people who have observed our little imperfect family. I have never had so many people say "I've got your back" - which means I have to be doing something right.

Thank you for allowing me to not have an ounce of fear when that social worker was in my home because I knew I am doing nothing wrong.

Thank you for making me realize that I am a pretty awesome mom - trust me, I heard that a lot this week.

Thank you for giving me the domain to teach my son an important lesson in telling the truth and using words properly.

Lastly, thank you for giving me the motivation to finish organizing my closets and drawers. Ive been putting that off for way too long. I even found my old Snow White dress so now I get to be a princess again!

I only hope that if you ever find yourself in this situation, you too can learn valuable lessons. I hope you learned from this situation that children are sensitive and threatening them with a school suspension only leads to fear and chaos.

Letting my 9 year old son be in control of his own cellular phone was a major decision that I had to think really hard about. I weighed the pros and cons, looked in to the costs and fretted about my decision for weeks afterwards. Eventually, the pros outweighed the cons and EVILBOY became the recipient of his very own cell phone on Christmas Day.

I selected an iPhone 3Gs. I know what you're thinking, a child with his own iPhone, but the fact of the matter is that I felt that I had more control over his phone usage with the iPhone program (I use an iPhone as well) and he was familiar with the operation of said phone. I decided on an older model because I figured it would be easier to replace in case he lost it or dropped it and that it would be less desirable to thieves and because it is older, it wasn't able to handle the newer games. It was important to me that EVILBOY understood that this was for emergency purposes only. It was not something to be used for games or "texting friends" or "selfies". He was completely okay with this plan as he has an iPad that he uses for games and selfies.

I chose to go with a Pay-As-You-Go plan through Speakout Wireless (available at 7-Eleven) because they have cards that do not expire for 365 days. I have a feeling he won't be using $25 worth of airtime in a month so this is a good plan for us to "roll-over" our minutes. This is the only company in Canada that I know will do this. We were able to activate the iPhone through this company because they use the same Sim Card network as the phone's provider Rogers.

Things were going great. EVILBOY had never used the phone because he had been with me the entire winter break and it wasn't necessary to have the phone active.

Eventually the case I ordered from China came in the mail. I decided to put the phone in the case but unfortunately the case did not fit the phone. I tried to smoosh the phone in (stupidly) and the screen all but popped off the front of the phone! No big deal, I brought it to work to speak to a work mate about getting it fixed and cost etc. Turns out it wasn't worth fixing, but it was still operational...

A few days later and the phone is missing!! I put it back in my purse, but my purse is so full of junk (really, it's kind of hilarious) and I'm assuming the phone didn't make it all the way in.

You read that correctly:

I, the adult who was worried about an almost 10 year old's phone responsibility, SMOOSHES AND THEN LOSES THE PHONE!!

I haven't had the heart to break the news to him just yet. Luckily I hadn't activated the phone card yet so I just have to purchase a new SIM card (and a new phone!). For those wondering: I did try the Find My Phone app, but unfortunately a few days had passed before I realized the phone was missing and it is currently listed as "offline". However, Apple has a really neat little feature that allows you to lock the phone and put in a note with your contact information in case it is found *everything crossed*

So I guess the moral of the story is, it's too early yet to determine the responsibility of an almost 10-year-old with his own cell phone. My plan was to share this in a few months after we were more comfortable with the routine of a child and a cell phone, but I figured I would share with the world that I am more irresponsible with a cell phone than a child.

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