clickies (the evening edition)

[phinnia]

I fell asleep for like, three hours. this is bad, because i'm probably going to have trouble getting to sleep again, and round and round and round. my shoulder is full of hatred today, and i have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, which is only annoying because between going there and being there and going back again it eats up about forty percent of the day and i'm hoarding time without kid right now. stupid school, stupid orcs, stupid fellowship.

this is where the bitching about school holidays begins. just in case you're sick of hearing about it and want to skim.

regarding holidays:

the child gets at least one two hour early dismissal per month on average (i have no idea why these are), and one hour early dismissals before any holiday on a weekday (so before the thanksgiving break, at the end of school, etcetc.) two weeks of short days for parent/teacher conferences; ten days off at christmas: four randomly occuring professional development days, a week off at president's day/mid-february and another week off at the end of march/beginning of april; and memorial day off. and ten weeks off for summer vacation. in my mind this adds up to way too much time off, but (snark on) i'm one of those people who sees schools as free babysitting, of course (snark off) (this is a frequent complaint voiced toward anyone who complains about school holidays; i've seen it in many a comment thread. i don't know where they're sending their kids to school to where it's free, for a start. jesus.)

(note: for the record i realize that i am very not-impartial in this situation, and i realize that i have my own issues regarding staying home with children which have been colored by having a high-needs child in concert with my own difficult to manage physical and emotional disabilities and the kind of temperament that does not respond well to (tries desperately to make this statement neutral at least) being stuck at home at the beck and call of your offspring (i tried, i really did, but it didn't entirely work).

i probably bitch more than i should (which is nowhere near as much as I would unchecked. i am exercising quite a bit of restraint here.)

That said: it is difficult and/or expensive to find babysitting, daycamps are extremely expensive and (mostly) impossible because we're still in the early stages of potty training, and even if we do find babysitters they have a habit of disappearing, never coming back, potentially calling the police or child protective services because they can't handle the kid.

which all adds up to 'i am stuck in more than the average parent because other people fucking suck' and i'm rather bitter. also: it is sunday night after a three day weekend and right now the kid is living on borrowed time. even regular weekends are bad. next week is going to be hell. and this is AN IMMENSE IMPROVEMENT over the previous status quo.

bitching ends here

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today's clickies are brought to you by thewlisian_afer, whose clickies posts are perpetually better than my own, and who has also been adopted as family. (some of you have also been adopted as family. i do that.)

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archives shed light on Darwin's student days.

Comments

[presocratic.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry you're feeling stressed/in pain right now. *gentle hugs*

[paraoptomistic.livejournal.com]

stupid orcs, stupid fellowship

still the prettiest, though. *hugs*

i'm holding out for year round school. aside from wanting to be ALONE once in a while, kids forget everything they learn like they are goldfish, and letting them out all the time can't be helpful.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Here it's because they can't afford to pay the teachers or keep the lights on at the schools. I generally assume other states are somewhat better off...but yeah, regardless, I would be most unhappy too. :/

[californiaquail.livejournal.com]

I swear those early release days exist just to torture parents.

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Seriously, those early release days are ridiculous. Why do they treat small children the same way as they treat college students? Do schools in your area actually have a duty of care, cos I'm wondering from your descriptions. :(

Clickies: I saw the latest on the ISS Urine recycling thing on Twitter, from Astronautics, which I had to ask them to clarify:



They haven't replied yet :D

[doubletake.livejournal.com]

I /am/ needing cash (and the job search is going nowhere) so if you need an interim babysitter (you're on my calendar for the second already) let me know...

[circa.livejournal.com]

We have 6 weeks of summer holidays, 2 weeks of christmas, 2 weeks of easter, one week in october, most of a week in february, at least 1 in-service (usually 2) per term, and now we live in the country, most probably another week where the school's closed due to snow on the rural roads.

Combined, the holidays take up ALL of our annual leave -- taken seperately -- and that's still not enough. Now we have the Afterschool Club, but it's expensive for a whole day -- £40 a week for just After School time, but a whole day is £18 (rising this year), so 3 weeks of that during summer, with little chance of childcare costs being helped with.... is depressing, truly.