There's only one thing worse than being collared by one of your children's teachers and hearing the words .. 'I thought we ought to have a chat about your son' and that is coming home to an answermachine with a message from school that begins something along the lines of ... 'There's been an incident at school...'
I should know as I've had both. Although I'd rather have the ...'Incident at school type' as it normally involves nothing more serious than yet another prank or silly dismeanor , the last one involved a bottle of green food colouring, enough said.
The other variety involves your having to sit down in a teeny weeny chair that wouldn't accommodate an average sized bottom let alone my wayward arse. The teacher then bgins in a sympathetic tone that attempts to re-assure that it's nothing serious really which of course it is. Alarm bells start ringing then you hear the words , learning difficulty and your heart sinks. The next bit is a blur. There's usually something about it being better to catch it now whilst they're still young, then some feeble attempt at re-assurance along the lines of ' I'm sure it's nothing really' then there's the sting in the tail about how much it's all going to cost and all the while my only thoughts are of sadness , of lost potential , of nightmarish revision for exams , of the utter humiliation that you know your child is going to suffer knowing they're behind everyone else, of hating every other parent whose children win the prizes at the end of term , the scholarships the choice of whatever school they want to go to next. I've been here before. I was hoping for a normal school life for my youngest but sadly it's not to be. It's no consolation trying to belive the twaddle that you've been given difficult circumstances becaause you're strong and therefore better able to cope with them . I'd settle for mediocrity any day.