Dear H - I’m trying. But I’m sad. Not a little sniffly, but the kind of sad that you feel through your whole body. Like in your bones. I’m not about making you feel happy or comfortable about anything right now. I’m surviving. Figure out your sh!t and I will try to do the same. Wife
Dear DD1- I do not ever want to hear that you’re the mean kid again. Just be a nice kid. Stop trying so hard. Just be a nice person and things will work out. Love, Mommy
Dear Self - Get motivated. Work out. You worked hard to lose this weight, so enough with the Oreos and nachos mmmkay?? Also, get a job. The universe is telling you that it’s time. Love, Self
I’m sorry you’re sick. But you refuse to go anywhere but the Doc in the Box, and they aren’t helping you. Please go see someone else. These guys aren’t going to make you better.
Your Wife
Dear HR:
Look, you guys fucked up one of my people’s ratings. And for a bunch of bizarre reasons, I couldn’t see that you had fucked it up. So I just told my highest performer he got an exceeds, and then he went into the system and saw that he’s not an exceeds, he’s on target. What the actual F? If you can’t fix it in the system, you need to find other ways to make this right.
Dear superintendent and principal, Please, please, please accept our request to allow my kids to stay at the same elementary school next year. I know it's not our neighborhood school, but I really don't want to keep transitioning them every year because our life is a bit in flux right now. I'll gladly drive them to school every day - it's easier than waiting for them to take a bus to our neighborhood school anyway with our work schedules. I just really want them to feel settled and know that we have a plan going forward. And if you could just approve the change for the rest of their elementary years, instead of making this a yearly process, that would be great too. Otherwise, I might not survive the stress and anxiety. It sucks to tell my kids that I don't know where they're going to school next year when they ask. Signed, Anxious Mom
Dear DH, Please start taking better care of yourself. I don't know what your deal is, but you cannot survive on 3 hours of sleep a night, especially when it's for no real reason. Every night you make yourself a drink or two and then end up staying up until 3 AM, or falling asleep on the couch. Then you struggle to wake up in the morning and snap at everyone while you rush around to get ready. And weekends are spent binge sleeping to make up for it. It's really not healthy and I'm worried about why this is such a trend right now. Life is good, you shouldn't be stressed out, so get your act together and start acting like an adult again. This is how you were in high school and I almost broke up with you for it (minus the drinks.) Signed, Worried Wife
ETA: Dear MIL, Get your health on track. You refuse to talk to your doctor about very real health concerns, because you don't like him and don't think he takes you seriously. You are now wearing a walking cast that you borrowed from someone, because you think you have a stress fracture, but refuse to go get xrays and deal with it. You work from home, for yourself. Why can't you find time to take care of yourself? We'd like to have you around for a long time and you're way too young to have this many health issues. You're not even 60! Do I need to stage a family intervention and start going to doctor's appointments with you? Signed, DIL
Dear DD, I'm sorry that you are sick right now. I really really hope it's not the flu. Please rest today and stay away from your brothers.
Dear DS1, For the love of g*d, please be a good boy for daddy today. You have been quite the handful lately and we are trying to work with you. Daddy has a lot to deal with today and I won't be home until 10pm tonight. I hope a visit from Pappy helps.
Dear DS2, How are you almost 1 already?! I just made reservations for your first birthday party. Time sure does fly!
Love Momma
Dear MIL, You need to take better care of yourself. When you don't, you end up in the hospital ICU with a chest tube, like you are now. Why did you wait weeks to tell FIL that you didn't feel good? With all of your health problems, you should know better. Now you might have pneumonia, congestive heart failure, kidney failure, or a blood infection. I'm so angry with you because somehow you ending up in the hospital will not be your fault - you'll blame FIL, who is a saint for dealing with you. I hope you get better, but I know that you won't learn your lesson here. Signed, Angry DIL
HTF do you likely have termites again? We have treated for termites in 2012 and 2015 to the tune of a LOT OF FREAKING MONEY, and at yesterday's inspection, the guy tells me that there are pellets in spots that hadn't previously been marked as active infestations. ARGH. You little things are the bane of my existence.
Signed, Not paying to fumigate this house again. It's the next owner's problem.
Dear WP's,
Even though we don't have to, I've started in on depersonalizing. And going through crap in closets that we should have gotten rid of years ago. It felt good selling all of DH's gaming equipment for $20! (I'm pretty sure it was worth more... I tried to give it all away for free, and the guy insisted on paying me), and I had mixed feelings about throwing away photos/albums from when I was a kid (I saved the pics that are of family, friends I was very close with or still have, but tossed anything that was random people where I had no idea who it was).
It's starting to feel more like just a house and less like my home.
Signed, A sappy sentimental fool in more ways than one.
Dear DH, I'm sorry that things are looking so bleak for your grandfather, and potentially your grandmother. It's good that we got to see them last night, as the hospice said that at most your grandfather has a few days left. I know that things will be difficult for you, but I think at 97 he is ready to be done with the pain. Love, Your wife
Dear DS, I appreciate you not asking too many questions about death last night. I feel privileged that you still have four grandparents, and that your first experience of death will be with a great grandparent ( I lost my grandpa when I was 4). I will do my best to answer your questions, but dad is having a hard time right now, and we need to be gentle with him. Love, Mamma
Dear DD, You need sleep, 10pm is not an acceptable time to finally go to sleep. Love, Your tired Mamma
Post by traveltheworld on Jan 24, 2018 11:56:31 GMT -5
Dear West Elm,
For the love of God, please come pick up the sofa. I can't sit on it as it's too tall for me! And I'm paranoid that the kids will make it dirty/damaged while we wait for you to come pick it up. I've called 5 times now. JUST TAKE IT BACK!
Signed, Person not good with dealing with administrative stress stuff
Dear DH,
It's sweet that you want to help with the sofa thing, but I can do this! If I can negotiate billion dollar deals, I can surely return a sofa. Signed, Person who is now doubting her adulting skills
traveltheworld - I can’t imagine returning FURNITURE. DD accidentally ordered me wide Sperrys for Christmas and I almost posted here about how to get the box to the post people, then calmed down and googled. I seriously have couch stress on your behalf.
Post by librarychica on Jan 24, 2018 12:21:33 GMT -5
Dear DD2,
Take a nap. Take a damn nap. It’s my day off, you spent half the night wandering around the house or rolling in my bed, daddy is gone for a while and your uncle is coming for dinner so I know you’ll want to stay up late with him. So take the nap.
Great job holding down the fort last night. I was shocked to come home to both playrooms and kids rooms cleaned! I've even been ignoring those messes for weeks.
Signed Grateful wife
Dear DS,
For the love of god, stop waking up 3 times a night. You.are.killing.me.
Post by supertrooper1 on Jan 24, 2018 13:55:48 GMT -5
Dear second line manager with our partner agency, I've never been sure where I stand with you. But when you just stopped me in the hall and said that I was the only name you thought was deserving to be forwarded to HQ as a subject matter expert for a project, that made my day. Thank you, Happy employee
Dear DH Thank you for unloading & loading the dishwasher and washing the pots last night before I got home. It was really helpful but I hate having to ask you to do domestic chores could you just do it on your own without me asking. Wifey PS It was really nice of you to finish reading Pony Pals to DD I know reading 40 pages of a kid book isn't your thing but it allowed me to cook dinner, clean up from dinner, and sit down alone for a few minutes and she got her library book finished to turn back in today.
Dear DD I'm so happy that you are healthy. If mommy starts making you wear a mask to school it is just I'm nervous with 1/3+ of your class out with the flu. Mom who needs us all to stay healthy!
Dear ME Stop doing weird crap that ends up hurting yourself. Passing out and smashing your head behind the pedestal sink a couple weeks ago wasn't okay. It brought back last years concussion symptoms along with all the migraines. You can't live at the chiropractor's office this tax season. Me who needs to be in a bubble and just had 3 x-rays of her neck to figure things out.
Yay! I’m glad you’re getting serious about our starting a blog! Yes, I think it will help you be less anxious. Yes, I think it’ll be good for us to spend more time together. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Dear Unhealthy Habits Go awaaaay. I need to go back to the gym but I haven’t been active in months. My fitness level has tanked. I know eating snacks all evening is bad but I can’t seem to stop. Up ten pounds and they have to go before the Caymans. Come on motivation and gym confidence, show up! Self who won’t freeze if I run or go to the gym
You are making me insane. You can't get a good blood draw out of my tiny veins. You tell me my protein is up, so you have to redraw. You tell me not to Google, so of course I did, so of course I convinced myself I had cancer. Now you say the only thing that is wrong is my vitamin D is low and take a vitamin. Instead of a glass of wine tonight, I may drink the bottle in celebration.
Signed, Put in your chart that I am am a hypochondriac so tread lightly!!!!!!!!!
Post by mustardseed2007 on Jan 24, 2018 17:43:46 GMT -5
Dear Neighborhood Mom,
Thank you for sharing your story with me...it was very eye opening to hear that at our local public elementary your child was denied a diagnosis and services for 2 years until the counselor finally said she "prayed about it" and finally felt comfortable giving your child a dyslexia diagnosis.
I would also have pulled my child out of school also and I'm sorry you had to go through that.
mustardseed2007 - take those stories with a grain of salt...one almost identical here ended up that the parents refused to get private testing and refused district evaluation - they wanted some other eval the district didn’t offer. Prayer wasn’t involved, though.
I was told SO MANY of those stories before I got services for DD without a diagnosis and have been told to my face by some of the parents with stories that I am “not understanding what services are”, I “must be making it up” and I am “refusing to see that the school has categorized my child”.
Some things do go down but I would say one third of those I have heard about.
Dear Other Project Team, I was looking forward to WFH tomorrow. But apparently you’ve decided there is some emergency related to how your project overlaps with my project and you need me and 15 other people in an emergency 8:30 am meeting to solve it for you. I’m now going into the office because I can tell this meeting is going to turn into a complete cluster and calling in would not be effective. Just be warned, if you are escalating this to me to solve, I will make a decision for you, but you may not like it. Signed Grumpy product manager
mustardseed2007 - take those stories with a grain of salt...one almost identical here ended up that the parents refused to get private testing and refused district evaluation - they wanted some other eval the district didn’t offer. Prayer wasn’t involved, though.
I was told SO MANY of those stories before I got services for DD without a diagnosis and have been told to my face by some of the parents with stories that I am “not understanding what services are”, I “must be making it up” and I am “refusing to see that the school has categorized my child”.
Some things do go down but I would say one third of those I have heard about.
I hear you. I've been wringing my hands BC I didn't feel like I knew If rumors were true. I will say, in this case I do believe the mom...she's just not one of those who tries to fight with the school. She actually used to work for the district As a high school science teacher. Our school in particular has a bad reputation for not providing services, basically has the rep of being the worst in the district for it even though it's got a great rep for students who are average or above average. but I've heard middle school is much better and she said that also.
For sure there are shady things that happen - it looks like TEA is producing some “new strategy”. Unless it provides more stringent requirements, the issue will continue to be local....Ugh.
2chatter, my BFF was a public school teacher in north Texas. More specifically, she worked with kids who couldn’t pass state exams and is a certified reading specialist and special ed teacher. Her own son was denied services for three years. She finally took him to be tested at the Shriners hospital and he had 7 different diagnoses, five of which were “severe”, including dyslexia. It’s much easier to get 504 physical disability services than true special ed services. They don’t count against schools under TEA guidance. That may be why your experience was easier.
mustardseed2007 - take those stories with a grain of salt...one almost identical here ended up that the parents refused to get private testing and refused district evaluation - they wanted some other eval the district didn’t offer. Prayer wasn’t involved, though.
I was told SO MANY of those stories before I got services for DD without a diagnosis and have been told to my face by some of the parents with stories that I am “not understanding what services are”, I “must be making it up” and I am “refusing to see that the school has categorized my child”.
Some things do go down but I would say one third of those I have heard about.
Agreed. I had one parent say a lot of things to me that showed me how truly ignorant she was well about a lot of things but also about school age special ed.
On my the flip side though wasn't Texas the state that wanted a certain percentage for IEP's that didn't match the population needs. For example, they wanted 8% IEPs but 12% of the population actually needed assistance.
Post by erinshelley21 on Jan 24, 2018 22:15:45 GMT -5
Dear Asshole, You sucked at this job so bad that you made getting one of OUR clients back almost too easy. He's not back yet, but I would be shocked if he doesn't next week with my brother calls. Oh, and you know the other half of the operation you've been trying to lock down for THREE years? I'll have a real hard time calling or texting you if we get that done this year. Signed, we're getting 2 more back tomorrow P.s. - if you have the fucking audacity to show up to my brothers party that you were invited to before you quit, I would highly recommend you not talk to me. Or my husband because I can't promise he won't rip you up one side and down the other and I won't stop him this time.
Dear WP, He actually rsvp'd that he "might go" on the FB invite. He sucks so bad. Signed, I will keep you posted.
Post by sandandsea on Jan 24, 2018 22:59:16 GMT -5
Dear both ds, Please eat some freaking meat in addition to your iron vitamins. I need you to pass the iron finger prick because I don’t want to take both of you to do blood work and to a specialist at the children’s hospital again. It’s not fun and I don’t have time to deal with it. Thanks, Your worried mom
dear dh, You work too much and it’s exhausting doing it all on my own. Yes I’m capable and we make an awesome team and cover for each other but it’s still hard. You’ve had dinner at home with us 4 times in three weeks. That’s not enough. We need more of you. Work needs to deal with getting less of you. I know you’re amazing but they’re burning you out and only you can tell them no. I know you want to so just do it. I promise they will get it.
Thanks, Your tired wife who is trying to make partner while doing everything at home too
Dear house cleaner, Thank you for doing our laundry. It’s worth every extra dollar you charged. You’re amazing. Thank you. Your happy client
Dear WPs, Go see The Greatest Showman! I'm obsessed. Saw it last night, already trying to figure out when I can see it again. Soundtrack will be on loop in my house forever. If you have even a tiny bit of love for musicals in your soul, go see it. Love, twinmomma