Back to School

As I finish my 5 day break and head back to school tomorrow I imagine these vignettes playing out. 

Mother  

I have never known a child to take so long to get up! That incessant alarm clock has been ringing for 20 minutes now.

Thank goodness she is back at school from today. Teenage hormones on the rampage at home 24/7 are almost more than I can bear! 5 solid days, now I am the one ready for a holiday! Talk about a testing age and demanding so, so demanding! There are times I just wish she was little again!

Now to get her out the door!  Permission note is signed, lucky kid, I`d love to go to that show! Uniform laundered and hanging in the laundry, lunch packed and in the fridge, oh forgot the apple, must pop it in. Homework supposedly done?

“OI GET UP!!!!!!!! You are going to be late! You need to go back to school! I need you to go back to school!!!!!!”

Teacher (Me!)

End of a wonderful 5 day holiday. Friends visiting and a stay in Hakone. A wonderful break from teenage angst and hormone raging students. Yet school still invaded my head space!

I still had 2 nights and 1 full day to go and I was tossing and turning at 1.48 AM thinking of school. Friday, what classes do I have? Four in total. Lesson planned- check. Need to do photo copying first thing in the morning, hope the copier doesn’t pack a major sad again! Don’t forget to collect homework. Absolute given that 1/2 the class has forgotten it! Crikey it is only a small series of vignettes, how hard can that be to get in on time! Principal wants the permission notes for the musical outing. Remind the students they have a short essay assessment on Saturday. Yet another test! They are not going to like that. Note to oneself, Buy some apples for lunch.

Seriously? I was on holiday and this is what was keeping me up, I should have been sleeping like a baby. Then today, Friday, in the early hours, I tossed and turned again only to have the alarm clock go off and on to snooze at least 5 times before I suddenly realised I was late!

Arghhhhhh I don’t want to go to school! I need another holiday!

Child / Student

“Mum!, I’m late! Didn’t you hear my alarm clock going?  Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Mum! Where’s my uniform?”

“Mum! Did you sign that note? I have to hand it in today. Stupid show, who wants to go anyway?”

“Mum! Where’s my lunch, Hope you didn’t pack an apple, you know I hate apples!”

“Mum! I didn’t do my homework!”

“Mum! I hate my Friday classes, that teacher can’t even get the photocopying machine to work let alone teach!”

“Mum, all school is, is dumb tests!”

“MUUUUUUUUM! I don’t want to go to school. I want to be little again! “Mum! I don’t want to be a teenager  Why can’t I just stay on holiday?”

Apple

Here I am, a fruit of biblical proportions, the fruit that tempted Adam and Eve and I am shunned by a teenager! Shuffled from fruit bowl to lunch box and back again! Bumped and bruised. Where’s the respect? Where’s the love?

Whatever happened to giving the teacher an apple? I am sure she would appreciate me. Come kid, think! Pay it forward!

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne