relief

Remember that old commercial where the narrator asked, "How do you spell relief?" and the person on camera held up a pack of antacids and said, "R-O-L-A-I-D-S!"

Well, I haven't taken any Rolaids, but I have had some major relief today. Rachel had a great day at school. If you recall, I briefly mentioned last time that I had already had to have a talk with the teacher on day one. Now that a few days have passed I can write a little more about that awful day, but at the time I was too traumatized to publicize it for the world to see.

I went to pick Rachel up on her first day, excited to hear about her day, and the teacher asked me to step aside and have the other parents pick up their children first because she needed to talk to me. Uh oh. I stood there in disbelief, dreading whatever it was she had to tell me.

Finally it was my turn and Rachel ran to the door--the first thing I noticed is that she had on the extra shorts I had packed in her backpack--so I knew she had had an accident. Ugh. The teacher then proceeded to tell me that Rachel told her "NO" several times, disobeyed, threw herself down on the floor, and also refused to go potty when they went. She then had an accident on the playground. She said she was very strict and Rachel tested every limit and finally after awhile got the picture that the teacher wasn't kidding, and did okay after that, but that she was very strong willed.

I was HORRIFIED. My jaw was on the floor. I've never ever gotten a report from anyone that she'd behaved this way. The only other similar setting she's been in like this is sunday school, and they've never told me anything but good things. She does great with babysitters and any other authority figures. Everyone's always told me how well behaved and sweet she is. Had they all been lying to me?? I know my child is far from perfect, but this just sounded like a completely different little girl!

I didn't know WHAT to do. I apologized profusely to the teacher (this wasn't even her real teacher--her real teacher just got hired the week before school started and had to finish out her old job last week, so it was a substitute). Then I started crying....felt like an idiot. I couldn't believe it. I was just completely blindsided.

When I got Rachel out to the car I gave her a stern "talking to" before we left and on the drive home I debated and debated about what to do when we got home. She was disciplined and quickly recovered and moved on with her day. I, however, took a LOT longer to recover (as in, this morning I was still a nervous wreck!!!) You'd think as a former teacher I'd have a better handle on this, but when it's your own child it's a completely different ball game.

All weekend we drilled it into Rachel that she needed to go sit on the potty and try to go when her teacher told her to, whether she thought she needed to go or not. We told her that she had to stop what she was doing and do what the teacher said, no matter what she wanted to do instead. We reminded her that she is not allowed to tell the teacher "no," or even, "no, thank you," which is her polite way of telling us no. She just needed to do it, whatever it was. We told her over and over and over, ad nauseum since last Thursday.

So today her regular teacher, Miss Jessie, was back. When I went to pick Rachel up, I was on pins and needles for the report, but Miss Jessie said, "She had a GREAT day!" Oh my......such relief has never flooded my soul like it did at that moment.

Evidently she had gone potty just after I left, so a bit later when the class had to go potty, Miss Jessie told Rachel that she didn't need to go, since she had just gone. Rachel said, "My mommy's going to be very angry!" So Miss Jessie told her okay, that she could go ahead and try. Hilarious! What a good girl!

Rachel remembered a bit more about her day this time....they had cinnamon crackers and milk for a snack, they read a story about porcupines, they went out to the duck pond and saw a baby duck with its Mommy and brothers and sisters, she played in the house out on the playground (but she couldn't remember the boys and girls names who she played with), she colored a picture of an apple, and they talked about the letter "F," which is for feather. In fact, Miss Jessie told me that Rachel was the only one to guess what the letter was that they were talking about today.

Today felt much more like I had expected to feel on the first day when I picked her up. But today it was even sweeter, because it was such a HUGE relief. I don't know what got in to her last week....my sister in law told me that clearly she had been abducted by aliens and put a changeling in her place.... But my daughter seemed to be back today, thankfully.

Ahhhh.....I can sleep again!