Smiling Mom

So last night I had one of those Terri­ble Horri­ble No Good Very Bad parent/child exchan­ges. BC and I just couldn’t seem to work things out. It was an emo­tio­nally grue­ling exchange which left us both sob­bing and exhaus­ted. It made me doubt my skills as a mom. Did I do the right thing? Should I have hand­led it dif­fe­rently? I’m not sure. But did I do the best I could? Yes.

Thank­fully when BC woke up this mor­ning, he came run­ning out of his room, smile on face, straight into my arms. Thank good­ness chil­dren are so very resilient.

Hope­fully BC’s get­ting close to the end of this new defiance phase and all can go back to nor­mal in our house.

I wrote about our exchange over at SVMB today.

Hi Ladies,

I did it.  I went to my esthe­ti­cian and got mic­ro­der­ma­bra­sion done, and wrote about it.  Head over to SVMB to check it out.

I am a public school teacher and I work in one of stron­gest aca­de­mic dis­tricts in the Bay Area. The school I teach at rou­ti­nely ranks in the top five in Cali­for­nia. It’s that good!

My school is also a ‘choice’ school, mea­ning that it is stu­dents come from all over the school dis­trict. You have to choose to send your kids there. The­re­fore school admis­sion is based on a lot­tery. When a child’s num­ber is called a parent almost always pulls their child out of their current pri­vate or public school to enter ours.

I know what great teaching is all about. I’ve seen both sides, the good school envi­ron­ment and the bad.

This is the best.

So why am I fret­ting about school?

Sim­ple. I don’t live in the school dis­trict in which I teach.

Teachers can’t afford to buy a house there.

I have two chil­dren. My oldest will enter kin­der­gar­ten a year from Sep­tem­ber and he can­not go to the my school.

Kinda stinks, doesn’t it?

Often one of the bene­fits that many school dis­tricts offer their teachers is auto­ma­tic admis­sion for their chil­dren. On top of it being very con­ve­nient for us, it also ensu­res the dis­trict that we teachers stay put for the dura­tion of our children’s schoo­ling careers. Teacher reten­tion is quite a pro­blem in Sili­con Valley. It’s a win win.

But since my school is a choice school, my own chil­dren don’t even have an option of attending.

So I fret.

I’ve seen great. I teach at great. I want great for my kids.

The school dis­trict in which I live is alright. It’s neither great nor bad. My kids will pro­bably do fine while atten­ding school in this dis­trict. But then I think, Is alright good enough for my children?

No.

My hus­band and I have dis­cus­sed pri­vate edu­ca­tion, moving, public schools, pri­vate schools again.… But truth be told, two public ser­vants living in Sili­con Valley simply can­not afford a mort­gage and one pri­vate school tui­tion, let alone two tui­tions as my daugh­ter enters school.

So we’re stuck. Pri­vate school costs too much, while public school just might not be great enough.

When it comes down to it, I’m just as con­fu­sed as the next mom trying to do her best by her kids.

Any sug­ges­tions?

Ori­gi­nally pos­ted at Sili­con Valley Moms Blog

I’m over at Sili­con Valley Moms Blog today. And wri­ting about a very con­tro­ver­sial topic, toy guns. It’s get­ting some pretty inte­res­ting com­ments. Click on over and share your views too!

Gun­play is such a hot topic. Should we let our kids play with guns? Should we ban them alto­gether? Are moms who let their kids play with toy guns ‘bad’ moms? Will I raise an overly aggres­sive child if I allow him/her to play with guns? Will my chil­dren and I be shun­ned by the other moms and dads if we own a toy gun?

These thoughts have all gone through my head.

Am I making the right deci­sion? Will my deci­sion harm or alter the course of my children’s lives?

Well today I’m outing myself. My chil­dren each have a toy gun. Don’t shoot!

And my hus­band and I gave those guns to our kids at Christmas.

Phew, I said it. I can just feel the looks of shock and horror coming across the com­pu­ter screen! And frankly, I unders­tand. With all of the school shoo­tings and other highly publi­ci­zed atro­ci­ties occu­rring within our country, it’s no won­der many moms I know shud­der at the though allo­wing their child to know about, look at, or touch a toy gun.

To finish rea­ding this post click on over. Make sure to leave your com­ments (no fla­ming please!! :0)