Comments on: Down, Blackhawk

by: Heather C.

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:48:22 +0000

Lordy, does this ever strike so close to home today! It is such a fine line to walk, the what-we-know-they-can-do, what-is-truly-their-best-effort and what-we-think-they-can-do. Sounds like you handled it with wisdom. Because sometimes? That urge to put on a flight suit is so darn strong!

by: Lady M

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:50:38 +0000

You have an excellent attitude!

by: landismom

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:01:55 +0000

I’ve had a similar experience with the Bee coming home with Ds on math tests–on the one hand, I don’t want her to think that getting Ds regularly is acceptable. On the other hand, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to get her to accept that making mistakes is okay, and not the end of the world. It’s always a struggle to be positive (or just not to mention it), but it’s great when she doesn’t freak out about not being perfect.

by: thordora

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:57:46 +0000

I don’t know how good I’ll do with this stuff, since, knowing how I was as a student my marks and my effort weren’t always hand in hand. Generally, low marks meant I was screwing the pooch. Try your best, for me, was code for “screw off”.

I had a scary feeling my children will echo their mother.

I think it’s really awesome that your daughter doesn’t do this. I hope my relationship with mine is much the same.

(and my “baby” is three….so freaking weird….they’re always babies though aren’t they?”

by: Buf

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:26:57 +0000

This reminds me of a story my mom tells about me in 6th grade. My mom was the school nurse in my grade school, not the same as a teacher but still very familiar with the ins and outs of the school. I was always an A student when all of a sudden I came home with a report card full of C’s. My parents were freaking out. My mom had my dad go to talk to my teacher since she didn’t trust herself to stay calm. My dad being the ever calm and reasonable one, talked to my teacher about why I was suddenly having problems. She told him that she was grading based on whether or not some one was meeting or exceeding their abilities. She said I was very smart and there were no problems but that she felt that I was working at my level but not exceeding it, hence the C’s. My dad was like ok, just as long as there is not a problem. Next quarter, I was back to A’s. My mom’s favorite part of the story is that another set of parent’s handled the same problem differently and yelled at the teacher. The next quarter their child’s grades were still C’s.

Sorry for the novel. Good job with the situation!!

by: MaryP

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:17:48 +0000

Well done!

You’ll probably find this post interesting, (not on my blog! no tacky advertising here) written about helicopter parents of older teens. I thought I’d seen the worst of parent excesses… Sheesh.

by: Corey

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:20:11 +0000

Good job with Sabrina and it’s great that you’re not blaming yourself. I hope you will talk to her teacher though and see if there’s something going on that you’re not aware of.

by: Sheryl

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:29:26 +0000

Way to go. I am proud of YOU. This is one of the more difficult parenting tests, and you have passed with flying colors. Everything you wrote, I could have written. (”I don’t need to do your work, I’ve already PASSED fourth grade.”) Yeah, until the not-so-great grade arrives, and it feels like an indictment of your parenting — or worse yet, your faulty genes. You handled it brilliantly, and I will take inspiration from your example. Brava!