Now that our kids are back at school, the Thinking Moms shared some of the things we have said to our children’s teachers. Please read and share with us what YOU said. Can you top this?
~ Goddess xx
Text by Goddess, design & layout by Dragon Slayer.
This is the note that goes to all three of my kids teachers (the NT kids as well as my former autistic but still chemical sensitive son).
“My child is not allowed to use dry-erase or sharpie markers…nor should they be used in his classroon. He is “allergic” to the xylene, toluene and other solvents. They give him head-aches and stomach-aches.”
(What I wish I could add but don’t have the balls…”actually no child should be exposed to such toxic crap in the classroom, and I’ll bet you’d have much happier/healthier students by keeping these smelly awful things out of the hands of little people with developing brains, and nervous systems.”)
I love this mom. She makes me feel normal. Also – great layout! It really makes it fun to read.
My son’s bday is always the first wk of schl. Its chaotic enough at the begng of new schl yr so i usually postpone the schl bday treats til later in month. This yr,I said Ay, he’s older, transitions r smoother, lets go for it & so I explained his diet&food issues the very first day of schl. She yessed me w the ‘oh i know all about, i know ive had students following the same thing, i understand it very well, dont worry…’
Hmm, so i said to her “OK pls remember, thruout the yr-anything he cant hv in class, no matter what the occasion-I CAN SEND IN THE ALTERNATIVE FOOD/TREAT AS SIMILAR AS POSSIBLE so let me know a day or 2 before so i can prepare it. Also let me know what day we can hv his bday in class.”
Her reply??…
“OK how’s Fri? Fri aftrn u can bring something for the kids-I was thinking since he has the dietary restrictions u could bring in Happy Bday pencils to give to the kids?!?” … *palm to face*
Ok thats a gr8 idea,the kids will love to eat wooden pencil treats! Yummo!! *insert sarcasm*
(ofcourse i didnt respond to her w that-honestly i had no words.No nice words at least.)
I already hv a mtg w her tmrw abt numerous other ‘ISSUES’!! The biggest issue is that she is not collaborating w the genEd teacher. My son splits his day btwn both-every yr has been a success. This yr they r on totally diff pages doing completely diff things & they HAVE to communicate in order for this to work!! My son WILL NOT be “no child left behind” AKA “child that slipped thru the cracks” status! Whew!
(Its a blessing & a curse being both a parent and a former teacher.)
Please, no chocolate or popcorn treats….or…juice that i haven’t sent, or the frosting from any “cooking” escapades….
Also, please help my daughter in the bathroom and with hand washing with only gentle baby soap…(oh, think i will send our own)….
And…..PLEASE don’t disinfect her desk with “Clorox” wipes…….i am sending in our own homemade wipes to be used for her “exclusively” …..Thanks!:)
Before we left Ohio LoRenzo refused to walk into the school his second day of kinder. He had to be carried in the school. I asked the teacher what was going on because my son is actually inappropriately happy. She answered me ” well he doesn’t talk much, so we wouldn’t know, would we? ” I said did you read his IEP? She said “no ” I said I have a copy and will bring it to you. She said “don’t bother, I’m sure there’s a copy in the office ” So I said “Then I suggest you read the fucking thing so you would know what’s wrong and how to treat my child” Two months later we moved to TX!
I made them all copies of this article from TACA:
http://www.tacanow.org/family-resources/an-essential-handout-for-teachers-aides/
…and basically told them that if they expose her to gluten, then we will all be dealing with major meltdowns and loose poops for a week or more. I think they got it loud and clear.
I sent gluten free bubbles, hand soap and dough
Luckily, the school faculty said many of them have gone gluten free too, so they actually commended me on figuring all this out about my daughter. It went much better than expected!
Over the years, I’ve had to say many things to school personnel that were painfully obvious. However, I’ve had to repeat to many a “School Nurse” and “School Health Aide” that while we have complied with their insane amount of medical documentation paperwork, part of said paperwork are Physician’s Orders for THEM to be responsible for carrying out! Noooo, it is NOT up to my children to come to the Health Office voluntarily, etc. Dr. writes orders, Nurse/Health Aide is now responsible!
They hate me for this….ususally because the Nurses and Health Aides are hearing it from me AFTER something has happened and they’ve dropped the ball!
Hope this doesn’t sound too crazy, but … occasionally telling your teacher what she did right helps, too. Although I admit from experience — overdoing it doesn’t help things get better either!
So true! We’ve done this too 🙂
This all sounds so, “normal” to me..
Please don’t feed him anything, unless I send it.. I don’t want him to touch other snacks and I’d rather you not refill his water bottle with school water, unless he’s miserable..
These are a few of mine that have gotten the “wow, you are crazy” look:
“What do you mean you can’t stop him from eating the snacks that other parents bring in? No sugar means no sugar. Period. If a kid was allergic to peanuts, you wouldn’t just keep letting him snack on peanuts all day in class would you?”
“I see you’re going to be bringing in a traveling nurse to administer the oral flu vaccine in the school library to kids whose parents sign them up. You know the library has a carpet floor. How are you going to clean it to ensure that other kids with immune deficiencies don’t get contaminated? My child is not allowed near this. Do you understand? You do know that it contains a live virus that could harm immune-compromised kids right? Have you actually read the studies?”
I have sent in a doctor’s note stating that he should be brought to the nurse if he is crying, throwing himself on the floor or pinching people. This lets us avoid the school making decisions on how to handle these situations.
Please try to stay away from words like “Don’t, If, Possibly, No, and Can’t” with my child. The negativity is what is driving his frustrated behavior. Let’s try positive words. Instead of “Don’t hit.” lets try “Use words and gentle hands.” Instead of “NO screaming,” lets try “Use your inside voice.” —- you guys get the picture. >.<
This is good advice for any child.
Wow, you have an adult child with ASD? …That’s great! (Open mouth, insert shoe)
Can you please note in the communication log – daily – if R has a bowel movement, and describe its color and consistency?
That brings back memories! I used to do that, I even printed out a special comm. log just for the err… logs!
I wish ours were actual logs. Lucky you!
LOL! Well, there were little boxes to tick under Consistency. You know it’s a good day when the Log box got ticked!
HA! We have totally done this. I’ve asked for time and description of all poop be noted on the communication note.
Now THAT sounds like a Thinking Mom. 😉