Friday, November 07, 2008

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Avery has had a bit of a tough week. Her teacher told me that she was not using her "listening ears" during circle time at school. To which I replied, "Huh? Oh, sorry I wasn't listening." (In the musical theater that continually runs through my brain, that is how things would go -- right before everyone around me would break into a perfectly choreographed song and dance routine). Reality is just not as much fun. Although, there was that one time when I picked Avery up from school and we were in her classroom and she grabbed my car keys. Her teacher said, "Oh, Avery -- are you going to drive the car home?" and I looked at her and said, "Well, it's probably a good idea, seeing as how drunk I am."

Anyway, because I am a parent, I analyze and worry and assume that Avery will be homeless and sleeping on a bench when she grows up because she left her "listening ears" at home two days this week. We discussed this with her last night, and could tell that even as she apologized for not listening and promised that she would listen, she was basically giving us lip service. (I'm alternately frightened and impressed by that, incidentally.)

(Also, last Sunday, after Amanda and I came back from hearing Hillary Clinton speak? Amanda was standing in our kitchen. Avery had obviously missed me and wanted me to herself, in addition to being very sleepy. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I want Amanda to go home." And I said, "Um, Avery? Amanda is RIGHT HERE.")

This morning, I braced myself for what her teacher might say to me. And she greeted me with this: "You know, Avery is really emerging as a leader. Even though she is the youngest in the classroom, she really commands the respect of the other kids and they listen to her."

Let's review -- We have a non-listening bossy pants who lacks diplomacy and pays us lip service when we try and discuss areas of improvement for her.

(I'd make some kind of "future politician" joke here, but now that I actually respect our President-elect, I just cannot go there.)

4 comments:

dilettante07 said...

Besides, we still need to work on the diplomacy skills...

Something you don't hear in the standard bios on the tee-vee, is that Obama struggled in his early years to use his listening ears.

Brutalism said...

She totally needs to work on the diplomacy skills. How did that not make it into the posting? I'll have to un-post and revise (which is apparently a big blogging no-no).

dilettante07 said...

I think you could post an update or something--kind of like bloggess. I think it's hilarious when she does that.

Ri. Short for Maria. Not pronounced like the bread. said...

I think that the cosmic tumblers clicked into place and put us in the same High School for one shining, glorious reason: so that I could be introduced to "The Bloggess" through a comment here. (Thanks, dilettante07! I owe you one! I've got a sweet coupon for some Ziploc Bags here with your name on it...)

I shan't be preparing dinner for my family tonight, thanks to you - I'm gluing my derrier to this chair until I read ALL her back posts. Then, I'm going to make up a word that sounds really cool and means "hysterical times forty" to describe her.

And, Avery is adorable. She's got my vote in 2048!