Thread by @HoarseWisperer

My son and I have had no shortage of issues with his past schools. As my son said this week “It’s like PTSD.”

He is in a new one with a principal I trust and like. But both of us have to unlearn some serious preemptive angst. It is exhausting. Nothing drains me more.

In my son’s first six years of school:

Two principals demoted
Two deans demoted
One teacher suspended and fired
One teacher demoted
One teacher put on a performance plan
One aide fired

He has also had good administrators and teachers but, man, we’ve drawn some ungreat cards.

I am a tremendous advocate of teachers. They have a job made nearly impossible today.

The good ones change lives. They truly change lives. They lift children above hardship and struggle.

The not great ones, boy, they can do harm though. Especially to already vulnerable kids.

I had a meeting with his array of teachers a few days ago and I am so used to there being at least one highly problematic person in the mix, it stressed me out for days.

Last night, I fell asleep at four o’ clock. Woke up for an hour. Slept for another nine.

It. Is. Exhausting.

On the way out of school, the principal said to me “We’ll do our part. You have some baggage too though. You need to get rid of that.”

She ain’t wrong. My son got physically attacked 5 times in his first 5 weeks of kindergarten. Took threatening to go to the district to solve.

We’ve both got some school baggage, my son and me. Boy, do we come by it honestly though.

This year will be better.

Standing down though - disarming as a fiercely protective parent programmed to need to defend and protect - that shit is hard. Hard. Hard. Hard.

It feels unsafe. It feels downright dangerous.

When a parent has been taught they need to be hypervigilant, it is damn hard for them to stand down.

I’m tired.