Family of 6 in PA

my 9 yo son that is. he has decided to not go to school any more! yay! happy dance time! dh is not so happy. he wants him to finish out the month, as we had originally agreed. dh and my mother seem to think that I talked him in to this. but I didn't. tuesday night jeffrey was not willing to his home work until after 10. at that time I did sit to help him, but could not understand the instructions on the reading comprehension work book page. it was stupid anyway! and dh was out of town so could not help. so weds he had to do the work book page at school during recess, the teacher explained it to him. I am very pissed that he had to miss recess, which they often have cut short anyhow, because they fall behind on their daily schedule. ugh!!! that really stinks because ds wasn't going to school for the 3 r's!

so anyway he tells me on the way home from school that he is done, he is not going back. dh was pissed.....finally got him to do his home work and ds said he would go. come thursday morning, I stayed out of it, believe me, well dh said ds was still traumatized and could stay home. hah! supposedly he is going to go tomorrow (friday) as well as all next week, to finish out the month. we'll see. my paper work is ready, just have to get it notarized and hand it in. I am looking forward to it.

of course my mom, whom I shouldn't have told, thinks we should be doing school at home with bed times and getting up early etc. whatever......if that's what we need then we'll do it. if not, then we won't!

and ds9 is ready to quit school. of course, he only says that when its time to do home work, that he doesn't want to do. and he got a note from his teacher yesterday saying that he does not pay attention in class. he is fiddling with his shoes or whatever and not listening. dh says, don't discuss it with your mother! so who else do I talk to about it. he does enjoy going, to be around the other kids and he is very disruptive when he is at home.....that is a negative way of describing his high energy high needs personality. and as a busy mother with 3 younger children I am not able to give him the one on one attention that could help him.

so part of me wants him to stay home and part of me doesn't. but, I won't let him quit out of anger over having to do home work. it has to be a well thought out decision on his part. and then how to explain to everyone....the teacher, my mother, dh's relatives, everyone. and then dh would not like it so much either. because he likes getting a break from him.

i wish i could take back last year and home schooling with sonlight. i wish i could take back putting him in school last march.

So.....I wrote my dad about my sister and his reply just confirmed what I knew all along, that my sister is a liar and my dad never said what she reported. And he made it clear that he knows how she is. And he was astute enough to point out that her only goal in saying such a thing at such a time was to hurt me and ruin my Colleen's special day.

I am SO done with her. I am sick of her lies and what has become a blatant attempt to ruin my life/my family. Calling K a racist....I'll be the first to admit he has some prejudice, but I won't accept outright lies. WHat my brother reports that K said NEVER happened. It is a complete fabrication. Possibly he misheard a comment K made. But to repeat it to others and base it as a case to prove that K is a racist? I'm done with him too. I used to regret that we did not have a closer relationship. Never again! He can go his merry way without ever crossing paths with me. I'm done with all of them. My oldest brother, well I have my reasons for never wanting a close relationship with him, I couldn't care less if I ever see or hear from him again. My sister, nuff said. My 2nd brother, he's ok, he doesn't bother me and I don't bother him. And then the youngest brother. He is out of the country and out of my life.

My dad, he has his own life, and that's fine with me. We'll keep in touch. My mom, we'll certainly keep in touch but she can go ahead and stick like glue to my sister, that's obviously the way she wants it. She can just stay there in her 1/2 million dollar duplex and enjoy working into her 90's. Whatever! I gotta see if there is a "Grand Parenting for Dummies" book cuz she sure doesn't know how to be a grandma.

My challenge is to try to have excellent close relationships with my children and not raise a bunch of disfunctional people. My sister obviously has serious character flaws and maybe nothing could have helped that. But I need to try to raise my kids better than we were raised. That needs to be my goal in life above all else!