- Oct 28, 1999
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I have a coworker who is a grandmother. Her daughter has a boatload of psych issues and two daughters of her own. Because of the psych issues she has lost custody of her children to the grandmother. There is no father to be found. He's a deadbeat.
Anywhoo...
The school these girls go to (I think it's private, not that it matters) doesn't have any Christmas stuff. They have winter celebration. They don't have Valentines day. They don't do forth of July. And there were a couple others that they don't celebrate/recognize.
But they do have something a couple times a year called "Muffins with Mom" and "Donughts with Dad" where Mom or Dad come in and have breakfast with the kids before school.
I guess at the most recent "Doughnut Day" my coworkers grand daughter ran away from school and was found hudded into a mess crying because she didn't have a Dad to come there.
Now my coworker is going to the school board to propose that they drop the Dad/Mom off the end of the days because she feels that it's descriminating to kids that don't have one or the other(or both missing).
I just kept my mouth shut. I'm not saying kids should punished for not having a traditional family....but at what point do we stop catering to the exceptions? FWIW, the grandmother has no husband so Grandpa couldn't come. I don't think there's any legitmate/reliable uncles either. I just think it's punishing the rest of the school for this families lack their of.
I didn't grow up in broken home, so I know I don't have the same experiences/feelings as kids that do. But tapdancing around words doesn't make their family life better.
Next thing you know is that they'll stop having "parent/teacher" conferences and it will just be "teacher conferences" since not every kid has a parent. Where does it stop?
Anywhoo...
The school these girls go to (I think it's private, not that it matters) doesn't have any Christmas stuff. They have winter celebration. They don't have Valentines day. They don't do forth of July. And there were a couple others that they don't celebrate/recognize.
But they do have something a couple times a year called "Muffins with Mom" and "Donughts with Dad" where Mom or Dad come in and have breakfast with the kids before school.
I guess at the most recent "Doughnut Day" my coworkers grand daughter ran away from school and was found hudded into a mess crying because she didn't have a Dad to come there.
Now my coworker is going to the school board to propose that they drop the Dad/Mom off the end of the days because she feels that it's descriminating to kids that don't have one or the other(or both missing).
I just kept my mouth shut. I'm not saying kids should punished for not having a traditional family....but at what point do we stop catering to the exceptions? FWIW, the grandmother has no husband so Grandpa couldn't come. I don't think there's any legitmate/reliable uncles either. I just think it's punishing the rest of the school for this families lack their of.
I didn't grow up in broken home, so I know I don't have the same experiences/feelings as kids that do. But tapdancing around words doesn't make their family life better.
Next thing you know is that they'll stop having "parent/teacher" conferences and it will just be "teacher conferences" since not every kid has a parent. Where does it stop?