Saturday, October 08, 2005
Dirty Deeds
For those of you pregnant, I can only apologize. What you will read WILL happen to your child at one point or another.
For those of you thinking of having a child, read at your own risk. It might just change your mind.
All of a sudden Grammy's little angel isn't so angelic. In fact, it seems almost as if he's possessed.
As I pulled into the daycare parking lot on Wednesday, I kept thinking to myself that this is the best part of my day. We already know that my job sucks, and that traffic unequivocally sucks, so to cap off the day by having my 2 year old see me come in the door and rush into my arms would definitely help to balance out my feelings of daily dismay.
Well, that's exactly what happened. I opened the door, he recognized it was me, stopped what he was doing, stated for everyone to hear that this was "his daddy", and came running to me with open arms. No sooner had I picked him up too receive my daily "I'm glad you're here" hug, did I hear from the den mother that he had had some "issues" today.
"O.K.", I thought. I can handle this. Can't be any worse than what I've already experienced today. "Really", I said. "Like what"?
Well, come to find out that earlier in the day, he had pinned another child to the ground and was caught holding a plastic knife to his throat. Damn! That's some cold-hearted shit. I immediately try to think of where he might have picked up this little move. T.V.? Can't be. We do a pretty good job of monitoring what he watches. From his parents? Can't be. We've never done anything like that in front of him. I can only assume from other kids, but since I have no scapegoat, he will have to suffer.
Then come to learn that he was disregarding instructions from the teachers all day long. No big surprise here. He's been disregarding mommy and daddy as of late as well. Not that that makes it O.K. Just a little bit more understandable.
And for a finale, as they were coming in from outside playtime, he pushed another child into a wall......head first.
What started as a feeling of "I can't wait to see my child", had quickly turned into "I can't barely stand to look at my child".
Thoughts of torture started creeping into my mind. First we can bind his hands behind his back. Then we can find a nice sized cane. Then the beatings may begin. What actually happened was a very extended time-out. Only allowed out of his room to be bathed and to eat. Pretty much sucked all the fun out of the rest of the day. You can't really get a coherent answer to the question "why did you do that?" when dealing with someone still in the process of learning the English language.
Numerous lectures from mommy and daddy didn't seem to help.
When my wife went to pick him up on Thursday, it was as if Wednesday had never occurred. Anything that was said to him was a complete mystery.
He was still disrespectful to his teachers. He was now throwing toys at other kid's heads, and to top it off, he was trying to choke-slam another child.
Oh no! Not again. I thought out of all 15 lectures from the night before, something would have stuck and this wouldn't be happening again.
Yet another afternoon/evening spent holed up in solitary. He did get spanked. And he was only allowed out for a bath and a little bit of bread and water.
Friday things have got to get better. He started the day by apologizing to his teachers and the other children that he had been attacking. He's still having a bit of a listening problem. But after conferring with his teacher, there were no beatings. At least not on his part. In a showing of just how much of a bitch karma can be, the child that was choked on Thursday decided that Friday would be a good day for payback. That's right, some little kid went vigilante on our child, not to say it wasn't deserved.
The first night simply turned my stomach. I never really understood what disappointment was. I've never really been disappointed in someone before. Now I guess I know how my parents felt at those times when I really wasn't on the "straight and narrow". And let me tell you, it sucks. Completely took away what little appetite I had. I couldn't even convince myself to drown my feelings in beer. Completely sober, I ended up going to sleep at 8:45. That's just bananas.
I think that, going forward, I'll have to look to alternate sources to calm my nerves.
¶ 10:56 AM 
For those of you pregnant, I can only apologize. What you will read WILL happen to your child at one point or another.
For those of you thinking of having a child, read at your own risk. It might just change your mind.
All of a sudden Grammy's little angel isn't so angelic. In fact, it seems almost as if he's possessed.
As I pulled into the daycare parking lot on Wednesday, I kept thinking to myself that this is the best part of my day. We already know that my job sucks, and that traffic unequivocally sucks, so to cap off the day by having my 2 year old see me come in the door and rush into my arms would definitely help to balance out my feelings of daily dismay.
Well, that's exactly what happened. I opened the door, he recognized it was me, stopped what he was doing, stated for everyone to hear that this was "his daddy", and came running to me with open arms. No sooner had I picked him up too receive my daily "I'm glad you're here" hug, did I hear from the den mother that he had had some "issues" today.
"O.K.", I thought. I can handle this. Can't be any worse than what I've already experienced today. "Really", I said. "Like what"?
Well, come to find out that earlier in the day, he had pinned another child to the ground and was caught holding a plastic knife to his throat. Damn! That's some cold-hearted shit. I immediately try to think of where he might have picked up this little move. T.V.? Can't be. We do a pretty good job of monitoring what he watches. From his parents? Can't be. We've never done anything like that in front of him. I can only assume from other kids, but since I have no scapegoat, he will have to suffer.
Then come to learn that he was disregarding instructions from the teachers all day long. No big surprise here. He's been disregarding mommy and daddy as of late as well. Not that that makes it O.K. Just a little bit more understandable.
And for a finale, as they were coming in from outside playtime, he pushed another child into a wall......head first.
What started as a feeling of "I can't wait to see my child", had quickly turned into "I can't barely stand to look at my child".
Thoughts of torture started creeping into my mind. First we can bind his hands behind his back. Then we can find a nice sized cane. Then the beatings may begin. What actually happened was a very extended time-out. Only allowed out of his room to be bathed and to eat. Pretty much sucked all the fun out of the rest of the day. You can't really get a coherent answer to the question "why did you do that?" when dealing with someone still in the process of learning the English language.
Numerous lectures from mommy and daddy didn't seem to help.
When my wife went to pick him up on Thursday, it was as if Wednesday had never occurred. Anything that was said to him was a complete mystery.
He was still disrespectful to his teachers. He was now throwing toys at other kid's heads, and to top it off, he was trying to choke-slam another child.
Oh no! Not again. I thought out of all 15 lectures from the night before, something would have stuck and this wouldn't be happening again.
Yet another afternoon/evening spent holed up in solitary. He did get spanked. And he was only allowed out for a bath and a little bit of bread and water.
Friday things have got to get better. He started the day by apologizing to his teachers and the other children that he had been attacking. He's still having a bit of a listening problem. But after conferring with his teacher, there were no beatings. At least not on his part. In a showing of just how much of a bitch karma can be, the child that was choked on Thursday decided that Friday would be a good day for payback. That's right, some little kid went vigilante on our child, not to say it wasn't deserved.
The first night simply turned my stomach. I never really understood what disappointment was. I've never really been disappointed in someone before. Now I guess I know how my parents felt at those times when I really wasn't on the "straight and narrow". And let me tell you, it sucks. Completely took away what little appetite I had. I couldn't even convince myself to drown my feelings in beer. Completely sober, I ended up going to sleep at 8:45. That's just bananas.
I think that, going forward, I'll have to look to alternate sources to calm my nerves.
¶ 10:56 AM
