Too much damn paper coming home from school!!

[rbnyc]

Last edited Sat Jan 21, 2012, 02:38 AM - Edit history (1)

I didn’t send G to school today with a poem in his pocket because I missed the note that it was Poem-in-your-Pocket Day. G was very upset.

Every day my 2nd grader gets home from his after school problem and my husband and I get home from work around 6:30. G’s bedtime is 8:30. His folder has a “Come Back” pocket and a “Stay Home” pocket that (between school and after-school) has between 5 and 15 sheets of paper in it, some with one time-sensitive or important piece of information buried in the third paragraph of a four paragraph memo.

Honestly, I find it deeply mentally distressing to get home from my job (where I have intense responsibilities) and have to absorb this density of ill-presented information in the midst of all the other things that need to get done by bath time. Usually while I’m waiting for something to defrost, or bake or boil, I scan everything – make sure I understand what his homework is, check his work and help him study. When I come across one of these two-page letters, I know I should be so happy that his school is trying to communicate with me, but I’m just thinking, “Send me fucking bullet points!!!”

I guess I could be reading every bit of that information carefully right now – I mean this is the time I have to sit down, but I’m actually fucking tired and the last thing I want to do is absorb all this god damned paper from the school. By Saturday, the pile is so overwhelming, I just recycle it.

So I missed that it was Poem-in-your-Pocket Day. My son is upset and I’m just pissed. I’m not sitting around here all day organizing school memos into a binder. I need one email every week that tells me everything I need to know for the following week. If the local soccer program wants to advertise to me, they can have a box in the sidebar – no more 200 flyers in the folder to obscure the Poem-in-your-Pocket memo. Put everything in one well designed, color coded, comprehensive and succinct email.

OR at the very least – cut me a wee little bit of slack and give me some large font bullet points.

[HopeHoops]

1. Enjoy it while it lasts. Before you know it, he'll be out of school and on his own.

My eldest is leaving for Budapest today and will be gone for four months (2nd semester of her Jr. Year at college).

My wife teaches kindergarten and even when she DOES put things in bullet points, most parents don't read it - "SEND HATS AND GLOVES WITH YOUR KIDS!!!!" She always keeps spares because there are always kids without.

[rbnyc]

2. If they need a note...

...to send hats and gloves, they have bigger problems.

I actually have a great relationship with G's teacher, who is wonderful. I emailed her last night about missing her note about Poem-in-your-Pocket day. She actually took the time to respond to me on a Saturday. She was very encouraging and pointed out all the ways I'm involved and communicating - and I'm certainly not the first parent who ever missed a note.

She can't control the fact that the school has her stuffing our folder with flyers from ever youth program in our area, and that after-school is sending home all their notes too. I wish she would bullet out time senstive info, though.

It's just all the paper from school, on top of all the junk mail, on top of working 40 - 60 hours a week and keeping up with all the other things that need to be kept up with - the paper just represents total unmanagable chaos to me. It makes me want to jump out the window.

[HopeHoops]

3. Self-defenestration is not recommended. Yes, bigger problems.

She's taught kindergarten in rural S.C., and was a lead teacher at a Head Start. The parents that are the biggest problem in her current job are the ones with fully-loaded SUVs who are too wrapped up in themselves to be worthy of children.

At least you are involved!!!

[rbnyc]

4. Wow...

...I was thinking maybe they couldn't afford hats and gloves. It's actually been a real struggle for us to keep G dressed warmly as it grows colder. I can't imagine having the money to just go out and get something and not even doing that.

[HopeHoops]

5. We get hats and gloves from Dollar Tree so she has extras.

It is almost always the rich kids that don't have any. If it is the poor kids, she sends the clothes home with them and they always return with them.