Surviving Election Year (and Still Having a Babysitter!)

I try and turn a blind eye to the smear campaigns rolling around during election year. I don’t support them. I don’t support the people hosting them. I SERIOUSLY don’t support the candidates that endorse them.

Sometimes, however, you’ll come across a smear campaign so widely propagated that you have to say something about it. Because not only does it make you look unfavorably on the candidate and their campaign managers, it makes you lose all respect for the person posting. 

Yep, I said posting. Because for me, that breaking point was seeing post after post of smear campaign propaganda posted on Facebook by someone I like. Someone I’ve known a very long time. Someone I used to have a great deal of respect for. And someone I will never again be comfortable leaving in charge of my children.

As a parent, I encourage my kids to express their views. I also encourage them to use their manners, think before they speak, show respect for their elders and authority figures, stick to the facts and not try and win an argument by throwing their opponent under the bus.And I expect the adults I entrust with the responsibility of their care to do the same.

“But it’s just a Facebook post!” Your Facebook page is a representation of your personal brand. What you put on your page, you are personally endorsing. Being an azzhat on Facebook makes you an azzhat in real life. Not only because you’re repeating it, but because by repeating it you’re stating that this is both right and a reflection of your personal beliefs.

THINK before you speak. Be careful what you post. And for the love of God, can election year be over already?

Can Open House Cause PTSD?

Tonight’s feature event was Open House, take two, in which elementary school parents turned out in droves to meet the teacher(s). It was absolutely amazing, the difference between Open House for the Middle Schoolers and Open House for their younger siblings. If there was a square foot of space that didn’t have a person in it tonight, I didn’t see it. 

Ironically, we found all the peace and quiet we could handle down the middle school hallway. Go figure.

I think my hubby said it best. By the time the kids start middle school, parents are like, “You have 8 teachers. Forget this. I’ll be a bad parent, I’m fine with that.” In elementary school, it’s all about the discovery of where your little one is spending their day. What projects they’re working on. Who their friends are.

Where you can sign up to bring in cupcakes for the class Halloween party. (Cough, Cough.)

Two parent-teacher conferences, ten classroom tours and $50 in book fair finds later (don’t get me started), I got to take the kids to their first soccer game, where the screaming and pounding of dozens of fans in the bleachers was welcome relief for my buzzing head.

No, I’m not being melodramatic. As nice as it always is to get to walk around, visit with friends and peek at the kids’ projects, I left Open House this year feeling like I got hit by a truck. Not to mention feeling more than a little bit of sympathy for those parents who DON’T make it in for parent-teacher conferences, parties and special events.

I barely got to do more than say hi and bye to the kids’ teachers tonight. I get that Open House isn’t exactly where you plan to have a heart to heart with your kids’ instructors, but it would have been nice to get a LITTLE more information in there!

Anyway. Long story short, it was a crazy night. It didn’t help that my six year old was bouncing off the walls, I’m sure. They’re all upstairs enjoying the night before their four day weekend. I have one more day to work before my weekend rolls around, and I’ll be able to enjoy a little peace and quiet!

Well. Except for Homecoming and Fall Foliage and bonfires and Hotel Transylvania, of course…