MotherReader

I was going to write up a review today, but I’ve been suckered into this ongoing dialogue on YouTube today. Seems like a high school senior called up the county school administrator to complain that schools were not closed for snow. The wife of the administrator called him back and left a message on his cell phone blasting the kid for calling her home in the early morning hours.

Given that I know of the area of which they speak, and know how hard it is to predict weather patterns there, I think the county administrator is doing the best that he can. He doesn’t want to close the schools unnecessarily — which has happened — or keep schools open when it’s unsafe to drive — which has also happened. I don’t think that anyone has the right to call him at home to complain about it. If you have to say something, you can leave a message at his office or write his email.

The current back-and-forth on YouTube focuses on the wife’s angry response. People are calling her all sorts of names, and her private response is now public record. I feel bad for her, especially because I don’t think her response is wrong. In fact, I think it addresses a broader concern, which is perhaps why it’s touching a chord with me and others.

I hear from teachers that kids question everything. They try to negotiate homework assignments. They argue with the teachers. If things don’t go their way, they bring in the parents. When did kids and teens get this huge sense of entitlement? Because at the heart of the snow day message thing is that some teen feels entitled to call the home of the county school administrator because he doesn’t agree with the decision to keep schools open. Is that really okay? The other issue is that adults seemingly can’t yell at a teen, even if he is doing something that could be interpreted as harassment. Is that really okay?

If you feel like finding out more — and I’ll warn you against it now before you get sucked in — here’s the news report, the Washington Post article and commentary, and the YouTube posting. If you want, we can talk here about entitlement and boundaries, privacy and Internet, brats and bitches. Oh, and kids today.

I meant to put up the review of The Thing About Georgie yesterday, but I just couldn’t do it. I need to feel inspired to write, and instead I felt inspired to take long naps and bitch at my kids. It’s been a long week.

You see, it snowed here on Tuesday. Actually, it was more sleet than snow. The kids were dismissed early and we spent the rest of Tuesday afternoon together, enjoying the free time. My library even closed for the evening, so I didn’t have to go to work. Yeah! Snow day for everyone!

I wasn’t surprised that school was closed on Wednesday, because the side roads were covered with a thick, heavy snow/sleet combo. I also stayed home from work with the kids and shoveled our driveway. The thing is, the snow/sleet combo was very heavy, and I am not so much in shape. I was able to clear out much of the driveway down to the street, but didn’t manage our sidewalk. The plow came through our street once, leaving one lane clear, but not two. By the time my husband got home from work, this snow/sleet combo was frozen tundra.

I give you all these details, because it is relevant to what happened on a wider scale all over the county. The plows hit the main street hard, but only cleared a single lane down all the side streets. I’m sure the plan was to come back later. But by the time they did, it wasn’t snow anymore, but a two inch thick layer of ice firmly attached to the roads. Normally, the ground here is warmer and helps melt the ice, but not after this cold snap. Also, most of the menfolk — and many of the womenfolk — went to work on Wednesday instead of clearing the sidewalks, driveways, and roads. By the time the DC work day was over, it was too late to shovel.

The upshot is that the schools were closed on Thursday and Friday as well, because the buses couldn’t get through the unpaved side streets and the sidewalks were too icy for walking to school. I mean, someone might sue if they fell. The schools may even be closed tomorrow, because nothing has changed over the long weekend. It hasn’t warmed up at all, and it’s impossible to clear off this snow. I know, because I watched my neighbor go at it with a metal shovel and a sledgehammer.

In the middle of this mess, my cat got very sick. After vet bills that could pay for plane tickets to London, it’s still pretty dicey. I want this cat to live because I love her, but also because now it’s an investment. I didn’t pay this much money for the cat to die in the end. No way. Not gonna happen. Even if I have to squirt watered down baby food down her throat and give her subcutaneous fluids with a needle and an IV bag, which we’ve been doing all weekend.

So the kids have been home almost as long as their Christmas vacation. It could have been restful, except for the whole cat thing. Oh, and did I mention when I went to work on Saturday the computers were all down? It is exhausting to answer questions for people all day when you can’t look anything up. Questions that would be easy peasy with a computer are a huge pain without one. Books on homing pigeons. The hierarchy of human needs. The author of a new book called You’ve Never Heard This Title.

I spent all Sunday in my PJs — which I never do  — put together the Carnival post and stared off into space. I didn’t even read a book. I didn’t even read.

Today the sun is shining. Whether it can help the roads remains to be seen, but it’s helping my mood. The cat ate a little on her own today, which is very good. I think the whole family is going bowling to get out of the house. The Carnival post is mostly done, and will be up tomorrow.

This post turned out longer than I thought it would. Sorry about that. It’s no longer a good introduction to the book, so I’ll give it a separate post. But, hey, it was nice to vent for a while.