Wednesday 19 November 2008

All attempts to make that child normal have failed utterly

A quote, if you please from The Beautiful Son's form teacher.

TBS exasperates a fair few of his teachers, he is one of those kids who is tremendously difficult to motivate, he cannot be enticed to study for tests, he views them as a reflection of what he knows on the day, he has this weird notion that revising is somehow cheating. Not helpful as he is in year 9 and will have his SATS to do. None of the if you work a wee bit harder you'll go up a grade, he cares not a jot what grade he gets, he will ask quite seriously what difference it will make if he gets a grade 7 rather than a 6, now Beautiful Baby Daughter will work her wee socks of to be top of the class, that would make her wee cup of happiness overflow but himself wouldn't give a curdie if he was first or last. Eldest Beautiful Daughter isn't as motivated as BBD but will work hard enough to get what she wants.

At school yesterday he got into trouble in an ICT lesson, he had to make a wee animated person dance and have spot lights flashing on them in time to music. Himself took it a wee step further and animated Osama Bin Laden and had him disco dancing accompanied by lights a flashing. This pleased his teacher not and he had to change it, sense of humour failure perhaps ?

Last night at home he had a tea towel tied round his neck and either pulled it up round his face pretending to be a terrorist or had it pulled over his head like a scarf pretending to be Mother Teresa, complete with accents. I used to be a terrorist but I saw the light.

He has a whole repertoire of funny walks and funny accents and he has me in stitches most of the time but he has an empathy that many adults would do well to emulate.

So Miss Hall, I don't give a flying feck that you can't get the measure of my son and you just see the class clown, I don't want him to be like everybody else, I love him just the way he is and I hope he NEVER conforms.

So for Christmas I am going to get him a T shirt printed on the front with

"All attempts to make this child normal have failed utterly"

and on the back

a dancing Osama Bin Laden.

And on every non uniform day, he's going to wear it to school.

I don't know where he gets his subversiveness from, do you ?

18 comments:

scrappysue said...

can't possibly think! he sounds adorably frustrating lol...

Nota Bene said...

I feel a career on the stage beckons...or perhaps he'll turn into an accountant when your back is turned!

Working Mum said...

Ha ha ha! You know those kids you teach who don't conform, don't bother with test results, but have personality, creativity and charm in abundance so you know they're going to be OK (and secretly, you really like teaching them) .......

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Good for him - just a chip off the old block. I love people who are irreverant and with bags of attitude and personality.

Anonymous said...

Haha...what a fun kid! Sounds a lot like my BBD.

Anonymous said...

He sounds utterly charming, just the way he is! As the others said, I can't imagine where he gets it from! ;o)

Anonymous said...

You definitely got your hands full.

DAB said...

Jesus Auntiegwen, why oh why can't more parents be like you. Do NOT let him change he must keep his "lust for life" (Well maybe not lust but you know what I mean) :) TFX

indigo16 said...

He sound like a genius, get the child his own website! It is a shame that there are still some teachers out there who revert to type instead of seeing the humour but has mothers I guess we are very biased.

Mean Mom said...

Don't be normal. Don't be boring. Be fun. I'm with mob. I'm all for irreverance. It's all that sees you through, sometimes!

Mom/Mum said...

Hmmmm, no clue on that one!
he sounds GREAT.
Do post a pic of him on the T-shirt after xmas.
You are such a brilliant Mum AG!

FOXY1969 said...

My Mum used to feel the same about me, and she is still thrilled I that I don't conform to the normal!
I hope he doesn't change either, he will be much more fun to be with than the usual window lickers I get to know!
x

TheOnlineStylist said...

Who wants to be normal anyway? This had me in stitches....if I'd been drinking red wine tonight I would have sprayed it far and wide and then it would have surely come out of my nose! (TMI?)
You are such a cool mum - I hope he knows how lucky he is!
I have been reading some Horrid Henry to Small Child and she now keeps on saying "You're Miss Battleaxe you are" to the preschool ladies! Oh well!

A Confused Take That Fan said...

who likes bland?
a boy with charisma who can make a girl laugh, that's what you want...
his teacher was obviously being very PC...

Shirley said...

Osama bin Laden disco dancing? What great mental imagery! My girls and I got a huge laugh. :)

Isn't watching your kids grow up about the most amazing thing on earth? I sometimes wonder where mine got their unique quirkiness, and then realize I can't take credit for any of it except maybe their manners. Gotta love 'em!

DJ Kirkby said...

You are a great mom. He sounds similar to our N2S who is also our most delightful child.

Tim Atkinson said...

Fantastic! And we all know why the teacher's want him to be a level 6 or 7 - don't we? (No-one else has the faintest notion of what it means...)

auntiegwen said...

Sue - he's fab, but a real work shy article

NB - I truly don't mind, as long as he's happy and leaves home at 18

WM - so true, I love teaching kids like that and he will be fine

Mob - he def got the rebel in him from me, mea culpa, his dad is very conformist

Lisa - Kacey is fab, hope she's well x

penelope - he is mo chrihde and gets all his bad habits from me !

cece - he's truly not a bit of bother, he's just fab

TF - yep, teachers like us think that ! we like the quirky side of life, don't we pet ? x

Alison - and those are the teachers who wonder why students are disaffected !

MM - yep, life is too short to be beige ! we should unite, bloggers against beige !

Mom/mum - I'm the best mum for him certainly, due to the fact I've regressed to not being a fully paid up grown up mummy post divorce, I have a lot more fun with them now

Foxy - good for you pet, keep leading an interesting life and behave as badly as you can get away with !

That girl - I love the sound of your girl, Horrid Henry was something I read with TBS, he loved it, when she's a bit older try Pippi Longstocking, all of mine, esp TBS loved that, I read her too when I was a girl

ACTTF - yep, I agree, funny gets me every time, she's just young and not used to kids that don't sit quietly but are still very bright, she just doesn't know how to manipulate him yet and I don't care for her manner enough to tell her

Shirley - sad to say it daddy who can take the credit for the manners, he's very hot on that esp table manners but the quirky is all me, I know you'll all find that very hard to believe, obviously...

DJ - good to know there's more quirky ones around ! I wouldn't be brave enough to say he's my most delightful child in case in years to come, the beautiful children read this ! but he's very easy to love ( as are you, beautiful daughters, just in case !!!)

Tim - he's refused to sit the extra exam for the level 8 !!! and will not be persuaded, I think he'll not even go to uni at 18 but will find his way back to education as an adult and that will be okay ( you have my permission to remind me of this when I'm wringing my hands over him at 18 )