Open Letters

[traveltheworld]

mae0111, belated happy birthday! Sorry it sucked.

Dear Self,

The fact that you are not quick on your feet doesn't mean that you are a bad lawyer. You've known about this your entire life - you are just not quick like that; but it's ok. You still know your stuff, just take a breath and think through.

Signed,
Your more confident self

Dear DD,

Could you say something, anything, at daycare? It makes me sad that you don't talk at all.

Signed,
Sad mommy

Dear DD's Teacher at Daycare:

Thank you for being concerned about DD. Even though she does not need a speech evaluation, I appreciate that you are keeping an eye out.

Grateful parent

[katrine05]

Happy belated birthday mae0111 Sorry it sucked!

[Covergirl82]

mae0111, happy belated birthday! So sorry your birthday sucked because your H wasn't thoughtful.

[waverly]

Oct 4, 2017 11:43:24 GMT -5 greenmonkey1 said:

phdmomma Have you tried this alternative method for teaching shoe tying: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cBtqhq5P28? My Mom, who is an occupational therapist assistant with special needs kiddos, recommended it for DS1 who is 5 years old and he learned in a couple days. DS1 is still working on tying his laces tight enough, but he can tie his shoes. I figure as he gets older and has better fine motor skills we'll work on the "normal" way.

Thanks for posting!  I'm going to try this one.  DS is 7, and all I could find is tie shoes.  He can do the first knot but not the loop knot. 

[phdmomma]

186momx, greenmonkey1, Thanks for the ideas, the shoes just came yesterday. And we practiced tying a little bit, he really needs some more practice and time. We got a note from school saying that the kids are only supposed to wear tie shoes if they can tie them themselves. He's in kindergarten, so I doubt that most of the kids can tie them. But it also might be a scale thing, our school has five 5 year old kindergarten classes, and two 4 year old kindergarten classes. So essentially that would be a ton of kids' shoes to tie.

[erinshelley21]

@mae011 happy belated birthday. I'm sorry your H dropped the ball. My H used to be this way until I started declaring birthday weekend (ideally I would get a week) and spent a couple years being specific about what I want. He is getting better about gift giving as a whole after a couple years of making it easy for him.

Is it too late for a redo?

[supertrooper1]

Dear upper managers,
If you have known for weeks that you will need a report and stats, don't wait until the last minute and expect it to be done within the hour. These take time. And shit rolls down hill. You're not just tasking the 2nd line with this request. He then requests it from me.
Signed,
Disgruntled employee that needs you to get your shit together

[saraml13]

twinmomma I didn't get a chance to comment earlier in the week, but DS1 had a similar hand-in-door injury at the start of the summer. His hand looked terribly mangled and I was sure he was going to have broken bones and/or torn tendons. His finger was all busted open and he needed 6 stitches, but miraculously that was all that was wrong. Thanks goodness for flexible little hands!

[saraml13]

Dear DH,
Why are you complaining that we have to send store bought food items to daycare? You were certainly not going to bake homemade cupcakes to send for DS1's birthday. I am perfectly happy to be able to send store bought cupcakes without any mom guilt about not baking Pinterest worthy cupcakes myself because those are the rules.
Signed
Remember I have a job noe

[2chatter]

saraml13 - I was so glad to make the transition to full time school across the board because...our school BANS homemade treats! That deserves an exclamation point because it absolves me of all guilt. I hated it in DC when DS was like "Zia's mom baked individual little actual
cakes with rainbows" and looked at me expectantly. Now it's Kroger for the win! Except some parents do buy more curated treats - like macarons or truffles.

[phdmomma]

saraml13, 2chatter, I love that I am not allowed to send homemade treats. It absolves the guilt of running to the store to buy whatever it is for the party. Although we also have the parents who buy somewhat more exotic treats, like someone sent in guacamole. But whatever, I'm just glad that I don't have to deal with the homemade pintrest folks.

[Covergirl82]

Our school still allows homemade food, but last year I bought mini-cupcakes for DD's birthday treat, and she loved them so much she made me feel like mom of the year!

Our school actually banned all birthday treats this year - I'm assuming due to so many food allergies now - so students can instead bring in a book as a gift to the classroom and a parent or other special person can come in and read it to the class.

[2chatter]

Covergirl82 - I love the book idea! I think there would be literal riots and withdrawals from schools if they did that here. It makes me crazy.

[justcheckingin73]

Our school also banned any food treats for birthdays which I’m so happy about. It’s one less thing to worry about. Although they say we can send pencils or other non-food treats, I’ve never done it. Compared to when I was in school, these kids get so many more treat days (holidays) and huge birthday parties - which I know is my doing - but no need to bring it school.

One of the other reasons they banned food is that some parents sent an actual huge CAKE to school and expected the teachers to cut and serve it. 

[mellym]

Our DC only allows store bought food which I loved with DD1's food allergy. Our school banned all food treats and they said it was for economical reasons to not make a student/family feel bad if they couldn't afford treats for the whole class. One less thing to worry about!