So an incident happened.

I am very conflicted on this one, although in the interest of full disclosure, I believe my daughter is right.

Let me break it down.

Friday at school, Sofia’s class.

A fellow student had a birthday. It was time for the class to sing “Happy Birthday” to this student, except…..no one sang.

The teacher tried again. “Okay class, let’s sing Happy Birthday.”

Nothing.

You know the song “The Sound of Silence?”

Yeah, well just insert it here.

Sofia came home from school and told me everything.

Me ~ Okay, so how come you guys did not sing Happy Birthday to her?

Sofia ~ Well I do not know about everyone else, but I did not sing because she is mean to me, she calls me a bully, she says I am rude and she makes me cry.

Me ~ Okay then. If she calls you these names then I believe you have every right to not sing.

……

Tuesday.

Sofia meets me in the office at the end of the school day, I can already see she is mad. Like crazy mad, the kind of mad that I am going to get an earful full on the drive home kind of mad….except she did not wait for the drive home, she let it all out right there in the middle of the school office.

Sofia ~ Mom…..we have to write a “Kindness Letter” to her, and I do not feel I should write a letter  because she never wrote a “Kindness Letter” to me when she called me names. She called me a bully, she said I was rude, she told me she was going to tell you things about me and it stresses me out! I go to school to learn Mom, not to deal with mean kids.

So yeah. Not my finest moment, but GAME ON!

Sofia’s class is crazy. Like  in a year from now if you were to Google “Worst Classroom of 2017” Sofia’s class would show up. Between you and I, her teacher got screwed.

 I have my own kid to worry about. I feel I am doing her a disservice so to speak. I can walk by her classroom at given time and see two out of three students using the classroom door as if they were at an amusement park. Their hands grabbing the doorknob, swinging back and forth as the teacher tries to teach.

Excuse my language, but it is bullshit.

My kid wants to learn, and these distractions in her class are not doing her any good. If anything, it is doing her harm, because she is so damn stressed out now, I hate it.

Here is where the lines get blurred. I am at the school daily. I see how hard it is. I see how much the parents take for granted……but I also see how these kids are affecting Sofia’s self-esteem and I am not happy.

Put her in a 3rd grade class and I guarantee you will see her academics improve. Why? Because she will no longer be stressed out. She will have a bit of an edge on everyone. She may be able to “Buddy Up” with someone and show them the ropes of 4th grade.

Sofia wakes up everyday not wanting to go to school. I have to give her a pep talk. The “challenging” kids in her class are making it so she does not want to go to school, she does not want to learn, because it is now at the point where learning takes too much from her, it is too hard, and it’s not because Sofia is lazy, it is because the more challenging kids take SO MUCH away from the teacher then Sofia gets lost, and discouraged.

SCREW THAT. Sofia deserves more….please, someone other than me, some else has to see that? Do not make Sofia a statistic.

Again, not my finest moment…. but goddamn, if you knew Sofia you would love her. She has taken the world on her shoulders in the form of Gracie. She is Gracie’s guardian angel, not because she feels she has to, but because she wants to.

Some of you may look at Sofia and feel “She is so quiet, she needs a voice. She needs to write a kindness letter”

Fine, I can take it it…..but when you see your sister, convulsing on the bed not knowing the outcome, and you are strong, you are strong for Mom and Dad, you are strong for your brothers, and now it is time someone is strong for you.

Take your “Kindness Letter” and shove it, because I have asked so much of Sofia, I am not about to ask her to bow down to some entitled little girl who did not get her birthday wish while calling MY KID a bully.

Screw that.

Please, teach my daughter. You only have her for another year, use her, because one day you will remember the “Crazy PTA Mom and her quiet Kid” and you will will regret not using using Sofia……she is going places, and I want you all to be there to see it.

Jennifer