Tears

Today I was teaching financial accounting; one student ran out in tears….3 times. I assumed (wrongly) that she must have personal problems….but no its the financial accounting thats the problem. Teaching a professional qualification I’m often surprised by the number of students I reduce to tears. She feels that she just isn’t getting it….she isn’t. I don’t know what to say…there is still time.

My partially sighted student had a support assistant today- that was interesting as I’ve taught somebody with a support assistant before. I think it might have worked better if the support assistant had been that at the begining of the course as he seemed to struggle to write down what was required….If he had been for it to help now he would have had to learn accountancy to some degree. which then lead me to an interesting question…should I be trying to teach the support assistant?

The support assistant and the student talked in another language; I couldn’t tell what they were saying and therefore found it hard to offer appropriate assistance. They may have been discussing the football!!

Does my son have ADH?

No NO No….He definitely does not. I think my son is a thoughtful well behave boy; who broadly speaking does as he’s told; has the odd tantrum; and is slightly obsessive he really gets hold of an idea and likes to see it through. His teacher describes him as ‘lovely’ ; ‘adorable’; dreamy  and so so polite….She sees the boy I see. His friends and their parents seem to find him easy, his nursery teachers liked him.

However in our family he is somehow seen as this nightmare child who is totally out of control. My step-dad recently asked me if he had ADH and could perhaps be treated for his behavior…This behaviour consists of 1) being a fussy eater and 2) getting over excited. When he’s over excited he doesn’t go to sleep well…..The next day he’s overexcited and overtired….more tantrums…I admit here there is a case for me excercising more control at bedtime but I’m shocked at the desire to find a medical explanation…I’m also surprised that the child I have reflected back to me is so different from the one I see. I would think I was deluding myself but as the teachers see the same child I see…..

 

Whats so bad about that?

I had the scary sister-in-law to stay at the weekend. She has views and considers it her duty to express them…. On this occasion she felt my parenting skills were lacking….The precise sin I committed? Letting my 5 year old son have an IPod. Just to clarify I didn’t go out and buy an IPod for my 5 year old; but mine broke and I was soo gutted that I replaced it; my engineeringly minder partner then fixed the original one for his own use. The 5 year old then used it to listen to his favourite CD (World Playground) as dad didn’t want to hear it again…..he then referred to it as ‘my IPod’; nobody bothered to correct him.

 

Surely there are worse parenting sins?? My sister-in-law also believes that are children are polite and well behaved where as mine is a nightmare obviously as a result of poor parenting I personally have no opinions on other peoples parenting skills…afterall we all have to make a million decisions a day…most of these are based on compromise. And therefore its best if other people just stay out of it….

More on the pregnant man…

I can’t get this out of my head….

My first thought #(not the one I want to stick with so bare with me) is that it wrong. Men can’t have children; changing sex then having children is….cheating. The single thing that has most defined my experience of being a woman is having children therefore somebody who is a man cannot bear children…its not part of the package. However when I examine this more closely I can see some fundamental flaws in this logic. If I couldn’t have children would I still be a woman? If I was sterilised would I still be a woman? If I choose not to bear children am I still a woman? Clearly I am therefore its not that thats the crux of being a woman….and so can’t be the crux of being a man either. Which leads me to the question- what is the difference between men and women? When my son asked me this I said it was the penis and that was all that mattered and so if he wanted to dress as a fairy (wings, skirts, a wand) then he damn well could. Since then I’ve become friends with somebody who claims to be trans and so doesn’t have a penis (I haven’t checked!) and he so clearly is a man that I’m begining to think this might not be it either…I also read about somebody who lost their’s and it would seem wrong to deny their sex on these grounds; what about sterilisation is a non-functioning penise as good as the other sort in determining sex?

Which brings me to a childhood joke; If a stool with four legs wobbles what do you do? If a stool with three legs wobbles what do you do? both sexes answer put some paper under the leg to the first; women give the same answer to the second however males  answer 3 legged stools can’t wobble. This seems to work remarkably well with the added bonus that both sexes feel their answer is superior…women for their practicality, men for their logic…But then does that take us to a socially constructed view of sexuality?