I am so overwhelmed.. Right now I just want to cry.
I know crying isn’t going to help me. So I am going to do what I do best.
Rant.
Today was Parent teacher day at my children’s school.
Each parent is given 15 minutes one to one time with the teacher and the Special education teacher was sitting outside Yaya’s class when I went to her class. She told me she wants to sit along while I talk to Yaya’s teacher.
Except for PE, Yaya exceeded expectation in most of the subjects. Her class teacher is happy with her report card. So was I
Then the Special education teacher told me that She wants to send in forms for Yaya to attend another gifted children program starting next fall.
Yaya is also nominated for the MACC( multi age cluster class. a highly specialized class for gifted children. Only Children who has reading and mathematical skills three or more grades above grade level plus two standard deviation above the mean on cognitive ability tests can attend MACC)
But that wasn’t all. She told me that Yaya has been certified ‘gifted’ since grade three( and I only came to know about the official certification today.)
I knew my daughter is gifted since she was 6 months old..and I don’t know why I am upset.
To make my life even more perfect,my daughter got c+ for PE.
Talking to the PE teacher, I was told that she got c+ because she just won’t participate in sports activities unless the teacher herself literally drag her to the field and force her to participate.
The worst part..according to her PE teacher, it is not that my daughter is weak and can’t handle sports, she just doesn’t want to do it. Period!
So here I am.. trying to figure out what is best for my child.
I honestly don’t know what to do.
I had always promised myself that I won’t force my children to do anything.( I should rephrase that.. I won’t force them, but I have one rule,if they join any activity then they have to complete it, there was no quitting when the going get tough!)
Right now I am at a point where I probably have to force Yaya to do better in PE.
I don’t want to do it.
If I don’t, her average score will be lower even if she scores straight A in all subjects except PE.
I want to be able to say, so what if she doesn’t get straight A’s in all subjects. so what if her average score is going down. So what..
But I can’t.
Then there is the pickle I got myself in to. I had always wanted to live in all the continents ( may be not Antarctica) and I am worried that I am depriving my children of opportunities in life because I am so selfish and suffer from a severe case of dromomania.
I wish my life was simple.
I wish I could be like everybody else. Live a simple life, go to work, come home in the evening
Instead I look for the first robin after the dreadful winter. I wait for the salmon to return. I wait for the Cherry trees to blossom.. While waiting for the world around me to change, I spend my time reading.
I have no qualms about days that are going by, no worries about not making those tons of money I could have, if I go back to doing what I am trained to do.
I am happy the way I am. ( While everyone around me is shaking their head and thinking what a waste of talent!, education etc etc)
I had to be different. No?
Daughters of Tomorrow
I am no way equipped to answer that..
But all I can say is, I dont think you are wrong in wishing your child to be the best and wanting yourself to be different.
Ultimately,its not the money nor the comforts which matter…
Its the small things..like the cherry trees,wind and the rain..
And Im sure your kids are proud to have an adventurous mom..Believe me, if not now..later they will thank you for that…
And talent shines anywhere…with or without the so called training and opportunities..
may be you all can play some games and physical activities together, like badminton, tennis, table tennis etc, and make it fun for yaya to have some physical training. have you tried rope skipping or smtg similar? may be there is a kind of sports which she could get interested in. and this ultimately could make her interested or at least active in some others too.
this is how i would go about yaya’s issue.sit down and talk to her and find out what is that she doesnt like about PE.there should be something.maybe you even need to help her identify the reason.when you talk she would realise herself the reason and then you both can address that.
abt the wandering part just live life the way you want even though you may think its not good for the kids now.everyone gets an opportunity to live the life they want..now is ours,take it.your kids will get theirs….
avani
i just had to tell u that I admire you for having the courage to stand up and doing what u want to . ur kids may not understand now, but trust me when they are older they will look upto u! 🙂
doing something different against usual “normal” stds is not easy, but is worth it .
jina: You always know the right thing to say!
Rocksea: She is in Level 10 of red cross swimming, she passed the canskate program last year and I thought I was doing the right thing by signing her up for swimming and skating.
What i didn’t know was that Swimming and skating are individual sports and my child has no problem doing individual sports. Apparently She is her own enemy and she does well when she is competing with herself.
The problem now is group sports. She won’t participate because there are others involved and she refuse to compete with anyone else or be part of a group where her actions might make her group lose points.
Avani: I honestly wish I can be just like everyone else..
Aditi: Thank you.