Grocery shopping took over four hours today. Only an hour and a half in the store – but when you include making the list, picking out the coupons, packing Noah’s bag, unloading the bags from the car to the front door, moving the bags from the front door to the kitchen and then putting everything away – it was over four hours. I wish someone gave me a biter biscuit to pacify me.
Tonight after Noah goes to bed I’m going out to drink beer and play Quizo with my friends Patty and Kristen. I met them both the year I taught first grade in North Philadelphia. They had the balls to stick with it – while I bailed after one year. Mostly because I felt like crying for my kids every day. The situations many of those children are living in are absolutely heartbreaking. Poverty. Drugs. Violence. Abandonment. I just couldn’t hack the challenge, the sadness of it. And the worse thing I could imagine was becoming as desensitized as many of the teachers became out of necessity. But Patty and Kristen preserve, and with heart – and for that I admire them greatly.
4 comments:
Sorry that you had such a rough day. Enjoy your evening out. It sounds like you have earned it.
One of my best friends teaches in the inner city of Chicago, and it's hard on her too. She's teaching 7th grade and doesn't have a single student who reads at the 7th grade level.
Four hours for grocery shopping?? Yikes! You must have a much more thorough process than I do. And, I'm guessing, you don't go to the store as often as I do. I tend to cruise over there when I'm out of something specific, and grab the things I know I'll need in the next couple days. Which usually means I'm at the store more than once a week. Either that, or I'm eating out more than once a week. ;) I do seem to recall it taking much longer with a super small person in tow. Zach is getting big enough he doesn't even want to ride in the cart any more.
I am a freak in that I love grocery shopping. though I hate unpacking the car - so I make sure I go when trent and/or sean are home and they do it for me.
I think you did a great job as a teacher. but it really wasn't your thing even if the kids were little angels, was it? it was hard to get a sense of whether or not you liked the job itself because of all the sad stories. and boy were they sad. I can only imagine what it was like to witness that first hand.
how was quizo? quizzo? quizzzzzzo?
The baby wrangling takes the most time - particularly when I'm moving all the bags around. I have to keep preventing Noah from throwing himself down the concrete steps out our front door.
Have you ever tried holding the attention of 30 attention deprived 6 year olds for an entire day -when half of them have serious behavioral problems and learning disabilities? The people who do it deserve to be SAINTED or committed - or probably both.
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