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In which I am beset upon all sides
These take place between March - now.
War of the Tulips
I think I've talked about Tulip before - she's adorable, but the biggest whiny spoiled brat ever. Her brother is a huge sweetheart and he's in my son's class. Now Tulip's parents are divorced, and they act like children themselves. Her dad wants to be a favorite parent so bad that he's blind to her behavior - or he thinks it's cute. Mom is trying desperately to be a cougar and failing miserably. It looks like she uses spackle and a bazooka to put on makeup. The kicker is, that since Tulip is her baby, she still carries her around everywhere.
Tulip's favorite thing to do is whine "I can't do that! I'm a princess!" She wailed it so often that I can still hear it in my sleep sometimes. She used to use it for everything. Apparently princesses can't share toys/place nice/pick up/go to the bathroom without an attendant. She also likes to scream "That's not fair!" whenever she doesn't get her way. Most of the other kids by now know me and know that I am a fun teacher. I get so many hugs and "Hi Miss Kanalah! Come play with us!" when I walk into a room. Tulip just pouts because unlike the other teachers, I don't put up with her behavior. I also like to bring stuffed animals from my house for the kids to play with - the catch is - they have to be good. Of course Tulip says this isn't fair, and I really don't care.
One afternoon we were having "rest time". Most of the kids still need a nap, but unfortunately the few that don't use the time to harasses the others. Because of this, we have assigned nap spots for all the kids. I've had to move Tulip before, so her acting up at nap time is old hat. So this day she decided to completely cross the room to pick on another little girl who was playing with a small toy. Tulip took the toy away from her and laughed when she begged for it back. I told Tulip to give the toy back and to go back to her spot. She threw the toy back at the girl and pouted at me. So I took a deep breath, said "Alright, let's tango, sister." and picked her up. Now my daughter has autism and I'm used to the whole carrying-a-squirming-screaming-child thing. So I carry her back over to her spot, set her down gently and grab her blanket to tuck her in. She starts spitting at me and punching me. The other teacher witnesses this and takes Tulip to the principal's office. Now silly me I think that maybe Tulip will have some consequences for her actions. Nope! She just sits in the principal's office until rest time is over and we're on the playground. She says a sarcastic "sorry!" and runs off to play. In fact the principal wasn't going to say anything to her parents at all. The other teacher walked up and told her father about what happened. He turned and asked Tulip, who of course denied the whole thing. I found out later that the principal only calls parents if the child has no lunch or if the tuition payment is late.
Food Fight
Speaking of no lunch, that brings me to the story of E and L. Again, E and L's parents are divorced and they hate each other so much. I know this because when I bump into either of them the only thing they talk about is how much of a jerk their ex is. I always think "then why the hell did you marry them and have two kids dumb
?!" They are fighting a war with each other and using the kids as pawns, which really pisses me off. The main battlefield is lunch. Mom has decided that the kids should eat no carbs, no sugar and no fat. When she packs lunch it always contains a boiled chicken breast, a handful of lettuce and an orange. Now I am all for teaching kids healthy eating habits, but she's going overboard. Dad on the other hand will pack them a jumbo sized bag of potato chips. No matter who packs the lunch, the kids end up eating everything, then coming up to me crying about how they are starving. We are not allowed to give them any food unless they have no lunch at all. We've told their teachers to pass on to the parents that the kids are begging for food. I really hope that next year things are better because I really feel bad for the kids.
Teachers play hookie too, who knew?
Now it's getting close to spring break. Who knew that we'd have 2 teachers call out the week before Spring Break? Now because the principal sees me as her "go-to" person, when I go in to drop off my son in the morning, I have no idea if I will meet up with her and be asked to work all day. Often with no time to even grab some lunch. For three weeks I worked in the "baby" program, which is ages 1-3. We don't get a formal lunch break, we eat when the kids eat lunch. Most of the time, I'd just grab a soda from the school's machine because I just didn't have time to grab lunch.
Of course these are small children, babies really. We had 15 signed up. Most were non-verbal and cried for mommy all. day. long. It broke my heart, because the kids were really sweet. The parents - not so much.
Now this is not a typical daycare where both parents work. This is an affluent area and generally dad works and mom stays home all day. I'm a mom and I understand that moms and dads need some time off, but they act as if the child is so much of a burden to their lifestyle and *someone else* needs to deal with the baby. It was such an entitlement complex that it boggled my mind - and then I realized why the older kids were so aloof around me. Because they learned from their parents that adults just don't care about them.
All of these are different children
I learned that one child has actually been kicked out of the school for his bad behavior, but he's still allowed to attend, as long as he doesn't bite anyone.
One child comes from a francophone household and his mother assumes that because he is in an english-speaking school that we will teach him English. No dice. Same thing with another mother whose son only understands Farsi. I gave myself a crash course in French, so now I'm someone's favorite teacher.
Mom dropped off her son and the poop was just starting to ooze out the top of his diaper. She saw the odd looks on our faces and said "Oh, I think we had an accident in the car on the way here!" She then RAN for the door. Ugh.
Mom dropped off her son and not ten minutes later he was puking all over the floor. We called mom and told her that her son was sick and she needed to come and pick him up. She replied that she had just gotten to the spa and "it's dad's turn to deal with him!" So we call dad, explain the situation to him. He tells us that he's on his way. Dad then shows up at normal pick up time as if nothing was wrong. Poor kiddo.
One of the little girls was groggy and sleepy all day. Since mom didn't say anything when she was dropped off, we figured she was just tired. When mom came to pick her up she said. "Oh was she tired today? She got into her older sister's allergy pills this morning, teehee! Aren't little kids just so much trouble?" WTF is wrong with you? Don't put pills out where a 3 year old who thinks they are candy can get into them. Also you need to TELL US. What if we put her down for a nap and she fell into a coma? (Hubs said she'd just sue us.)
Mom tried to drop off her kid without shoes on. We reminded her of the school's policy that children must wear shoes. We're not uber strict, flip-flops count as shoes. Mom flips out and starts screaming at us, calling us Nazis. And of course because mom is screaming, now the kidlet is crying too. Which of course, mom blames on us.
Now they did ask me to work summer school, but I didn't want to pay $160/week for someone to watch my kids so I can work and earn $150/week max. So I got summer off to get some sewing done.
Frienemies?
A friend of mine orders a quilt and acts surprised when I tell her the cost, as if she doesn't have to pay after purchasing things in the past and telling others about my shop.
One of my friends said that it wasn't PC for me to sell quilts, since "not everyone knows how to sew." I told her that I do offer lessons. She said "I hope you don't charge for them then, because it's not fair to make a profit off of people." I had to walk away at that point.
Craft Show BS
For the unaware, there are lots of crafters in my area. Many just do home parties or craft shows. We have a ton of "crafter's mall" type shops, with more opening up all the time. And with those comes people who take advantage of crafters. I submit to you, a tale of 3 shops.
Shop A - pay booth rent + 10% commission on all sales + you are only allowed to go in to restock 2 hours per week, Wednesday night or Sat morning.
Shop B will let you rent for free, but only if you teach a free monthly class on how to make your craft to locals. So that then they don't need to buy from you.
Shop C is a consignment shop (60/40 split) where the shop owners decide on what's a fair price for your handmade goods. In their words "We have to make sure the prices are fair and the vendors aren't gouging people." So if they decide my quilts aren't worth the price on the tag, they'll remark them? Sounds like theft to me.
Apparently there's a new trend of people claiming to run craft shows, get vendors to send checks for a booth, cash them and run. Happened in January and the 19-y-o running the show only started to offer refunds "to those who asked" because people started complaining. She finally send out refunds to everyone when people threatened legal action.
Another one just happened in June and there is an open case pending with the local police. She stole over $10,000 from vendors wanting booths in her "show".
I am currently keeping an eye on a lady with apparent multiple personality disorder. Under one name she has "show 1" at location at date/time. Under another name she has "show 2" at the same location at the same date and time. A friend of mine called the location and asked and they have nothing scheduled for that day at all. Plus the application is just your name and credit card #. No information about what you sell at all.
I am feeling very glad that I didn't sign up for so many shows this year, since all the ones I was thinking about have ended up to be scammers. One was just cancelled today after originally being planned for January, then being pushed back over and over and over. In the announcement they sent out today, I found out that they pushed the show back to mid October before it was finally
cancelled. And of course no word about refunds.
And since I opened up my holiday orders early, I've been busy. One lady must've sent 50 emails to me about every tiny little thing she wanted in her quilt, then told me she had a small budget and I should work with her, then after she sent me her deposit she emailed me with "Oh you're the expert, just do whatever!"
And on top of that I haven't been sleeping well, maybe 3 or 4 hours a night because hubby snores and my daughter likes to get up late at night and play.
And I have a show in 2 weeks.
War of the Tulips
I think I've talked about Tulip before - she's adorable, but the biggest whiny spoiled brat ever. Her brother is a huge sweetheart and he's in my son's class. Now Tulip's parents are divorced, and they act like children themselves. Her dad wants to be a favorite parent so bad that he's blind to her behavior - or he thinks it's cute. Mom is trying desperately to be a cougar and failing miserably. It looks like she uses spackle and a bazooka to put on makeup. The kicker is, that since Tulip is her baby, she still carries her around everywhere.
Tulip's favorite thing to do is whine "I can't do that! I'm a princess!" She wailed it so often that I can still hear it in my sleep sometimes. She used to use it for everything. Apparently princesses can't share toys/place nice/pick up/go to the bathroom without an attendant. She also likes to scream "That's not fair!" whenever she doesn't get her way. Most of the other kids by now know me and know that I am a fun teacher. I get so many hugs and "Hi Miss Kanalah! Come play with us!" when I walk into a room. Tulip just pouts because unlike the other teachers, I don't put up with her behavior. I also like to bring stuffed animals from my house for the kids to play with - the catch is - they have to be good. Of course Tulip says this isn't fair, and I really don't care.
One afternoon we were having "rest time". Most of the kids still need a nap, but unfortunately the few that don't use the time to harasses the others. Because of this, we have assigned nap spots for all the kids. I've had to move Tulip before, so her acting up at nap time is old hat. So this day she decided to completely cross the room to pick on another little girl who was playing with a small toy. Tulip took the toy away from her and laughed when she begged for it back. I told Tulip to give the toy back and to go back to her spot. She threw the toy back at the girl and pouted at me. So I took a deep breath, said "Alright, let's tango, sister." and picked her up. Now my daughter has autism and I'm used to the whole carrying-a-squirming-screaming-child thing. So I carry her back over to her spot, set her down gently and grab her blanket to tuck her in. She starts spitting at me and punching me. The other teacher witnesses this and takes Tulip to the principal's office. Now silly me I think that maybe Tulip will have some consequences for her actions. Nope! She just sits in the principal's office until rest time is over and we're on the playground. She says a sarcastic "sorry!" and runs off to play. In fact the principal wasn't going to say anything to her parents at all. The other teacher walked up and told her father about what happened. He turned and asked Tulip, who of course denied the whole thing. I found out later that the principal only calls parents if the child has no lunch or if the tuition payment is late.
Food Fight
Speaking of no lunch, that brings me to the story of E and L. Again, E and L's parents are divorced and they hate each other so much. I know this because when I bump into either of them the only thing they talk about is how much of a jerk their ex is. I always think "then why the hell did you marry them and have two kids dumb
?!" They are fighting a war with each other and using the kids as pawns, which really pisses me off. The main battlefield is lunch. Mom has decided that the kids should eat no carbs, no sugar and no fat. When she packs lunch it always contains a boiled chicken breast, a handful of lettuce and an orange. Now I am all for teaching kids healthy eating habits, but she's going overboard. Dad on the other hand will pack them a jumbo sized bag of potato chips. No matter who packs the lunch, the kids end up eating everything, then coming up to me crying about how they are starving. We are not allowed to give them any food unless they have no lunch at all. We've told their teachers to pass on to the parents that the kids are begging for food. I really hope that next year things are better because I really feel bad for the kids. Teachers play hookie too, who knew?
Now it's getting close to spring break. Who knew that we'd have 2 teachers call out the week before Spring Break? Now because the principal sees me as her "go-to" person, when I go in to drop off my son in the morning, I have no idea if I will meet up with her and be asked to work all day. Often with no time to even grab some lunch. For three weeks I worked in the "baby" program, which is ages 1-3. We don't get a formal lunch break, we eat when the kids eat lunch. Most of the time, I'd just grab a soda from the school's machine because I just didn't have time to grab lunch.
Of course these are small children, babies really. We had 15 signed up. Most were non-verbal and cried for mommy all. day. long. It broke my heart, because the kids were really sweet. The parents - not so much.
Now this is not a typical daycare where both parents work. This is an affluent area and generally dad works and mom stays home all day. I'm a mom and I understand that moms and dads need some time off, but they act as if the child is so much of a burden to their lifestyle and *someone else* needs to deal with the baby. It was such an entitlement complex that it boggled my mind - and then I realized why the older kids were so aloof around me. Because they learned from their parents that adults just don't care about them.
All of these are different children
I learned that one child has actually been kicked out of the school for his bad behavior, but he's still allowed to attend, as long as he doesn't bite anyone.
One child comes from a francophone household and his mother assumes that because he is in an english-speaking school that we will teach him English. No dice. Same thing with another mother whose son only understands Farsi. I gave myself a crash course in French, so now I'm someone's favorite teacher.
Mom dropped off her son and the poop was just starting to ooze out the top of his diaper. She saw the odd looks on our faces and said "Oh, I think we had an accident in the car on the way here!" She then RAN for the door. Ugh.
Mom dropped off her son and not ten minutes later he was puking all over the floor. We called mom and told her that her son was sick and she needed to come and pick him up. She replied that she had just gotten to the spa and "it's dad's turn to deal with him!" So we call dad, explain the situation to him. He tells us that he's on his way. Dad then shows up at normal pick up time as if nothing was wrong. Poor kiddo.
One of the little girls was groggy and sleepy all day. Since mom didn't say anything when she was dropped off, we figured she was just tired. When mom came to pick her up she said. "Oh was she tired today? She got into her older sister's allergy pills this morning, teehee! Aren't little kids just so much trouble?" WTF is wrong with you? Don't put pills out where a 3 year old who thinks they are candy can get into them. Also you need to TELL US. What if we put her down for a nap and she fell into a coma? (Hubs said she'd just sue us.)
Mom tried to drop off her kid without shoes on. We reminded her of the school's policy that children must wear shoes. We're not uber strict, flip-flops count as shoes. Mom flips out and starts screaming at us, calling us Nazis. And of course because mom is screaming, now the kidlet is crying too. Which of course, mom blames on us.
Now they did ask me to work summer school, but I didn't want to pay $160/week for someone to watch my kids so I can work and earn $150/week max. So I got summer off to get some sewing done.
Frienemies?
A friend of mine orders a quilt and acts surprised when I tell her the cost, as if she doesn't have to pay after purchasing things in the past and telling others about my shop.
One of my friends said that it wasn't PC for me to sell quilts, since "not everyone knows how to sew." I told her that I do offer lessons. She said "I hope you don't charge for them then, because it's not fair to make a profit off of people." I had to walk away at that point.
Craft Show BS
For the unaware, there are lots of crafters in my area. Many just do home parties or craft shows. We have a ton of "crafter's mall" type shops, with more opening up all the time. And with those comes people who take advantage of crafters. I submit to you, a tale of 3 shops.
Shop A - pay booth rent + 10% commission on all sales + you are only allowed to go in to restock 2 hours per week, Wednesday night or Sat morning.
Shop B will let you rent for free, but only if you teach a free monthly class on how to make your craft to locals. So that then they don't need to buy from you.
Shop C is a consignment shop (60/40 split) where the shop owners decide on what's a fair price for your handmade goods. In their words "We have to make sure the prices are fair and the vendors aren't gouging people." So if they decide my quilts aren't worth the price on the tag, they'll remark them? Sounds like theft to me.
Apparently there's a new trend of people claiming to run craft shows, get vendors to send checks for a booth, cash them and run. Happened in January and the 19-y-o running the show only started to offer refunds "to those who asked" because people started complaining. She finally send out refunds to everyone when people threatened legal action.
Another one just happened in June and there is an open case pending with the local police. She stole over $10,000 from vendors wanting booths in her "show".
I am currently keeping an eye on a lady with apparent multiple personality disorder. Under one name she has "show 1" at location at date/time. Under another name she has "show 2" at the same location at the same date and time. A friend of mine called the location and asked and they have nothing scheduled for that day at all. Plus the application is just your name and credit card #. No information about what you sell at all.
I am feeling very glad that I didn't sign up for so many shows this year, since all the ones I was thinking about have ended up to be scammers. One was just cancelled today after originally being planned for January, then being pushed back over and over and over. In the announcement they sent out today, I found out that they pushed the show back to mid October before it was finally
cancelled. And of course no word about refunds.
And since I opened up my holiday orders early, I've been busy. One lady must've sent 50 emails to me about every tiny little thing she wanted in her quilt, then told me she had a small budget and I should work with her, then after she sent me her deposit she emailed me with "Oh you're the expert, just do whatever!"
And on top of that I haven't been sleeping well, maybe 3 or 4 hours a night because hubby snores and my daughter likes to get up late at night and play.
And I have a show in 2 weeks.
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