Chef_Troy (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} chef_troy) wrote,@ 2009-03-05 12:24:00 |
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Until someone makes me a "wearily clutching my forehead" icon, "angry" will have to do.
Every time my son gets a bad grade on a test or something, he calls me at work from the school counselor's office to tell me.
I am not exactly glancing at the clock every day hoping against hope that today will be the day that I get another one of these calls.
I think he does it because he wants to get it off his chest, because he thinks I'll cool down about it between now and when I pick him up, and because he wants a witness in case I reach through the phone and dope-slap him.
Today's call was a special one. Instead of a bad grade on one test or one piece of homework, he was calling me to tell me that he has a 60 average in biology class for the entire grading period.
That's right, folks, my scary-smart son is flunking a class.
Apparently he tried to call his mother about it first, thinking this might be the call that finally got me to set him on fire with my mind, but she couldn't take the call. When she later called me to find out what was up, I told her, and her reaction was "It's those goddamned video games. They're nothing but a distraction. Well, you know what we're going to do? We're going to pack 'em up. They're going away. We're disconnecting the Wii, we're confiscating the Xbox controllers and his DS, and that's that."
My silent reaction to that idea was "Well SHIT. I'm not flunking biology -- why the hell can't I still play?" But I've been giving it some thought, and the truth is that video games ARE a huge distraction, and there are several other ways I could more profitably be using that time, so I'll go along with it.
My brother's family has a policy of "no electronics during the week." Starting Sunday at dinnertime, nobody -- including the grownups -- plays video games or uses the computers except for work (I'm not sure about the television). The ban lifts right after school every Friday and lasts the weekend. Apparently it works well; I may suggest to Mrs. Chef that we do the same, rather than instituting an outright ban.
Every time my son gets a bad grade on a test or something, he calls me at work from the school counselor's office to tell me.
I am not exactly glancing at the clock every day hoping against hope that today will be the day that I get another one of these calls.
I think he does it because he wants to get it off his chest, because he thinks I'll cool down about it between now and when I pick him up, and because he wants a witness in case I reach through the phone and dope-slap him.
Today's call was a special one. Instead of a bad grade on one test or one piece of homework, he was calling me to tell me that he has a 60 average in biology class for the entire grading period.
That's right, folks, my scary-smart son is flunking a class.
Apparently he tried to call his mother about it first, thinking this might be the call that finally got me to set him on fire with my mind, but she couldn't take the call. When she later called me to find out what was up, I told her, and her reaction was "It's those goddamned video games. They're nothing but a distraction. Well, you know what we're going to do? We're going to pack 'em up. They're going away. We're disconnecting the Wii, we're confiscating the Xbox controllers and his DS, and that's that."
My silent reaction to that idea was "Well SHIT. I'm not flunking biology -- why the hell can't I still play?" But I've been giving it some thought, and the truth is that video games ARE a huge distraction, and there are several other ways I could more profitably be using that time, so I'll go along with it.
My brother's family has a policy of "no electronics during the week." Starting Sunday at dinnertime, nobody -- including the grownups -- plays video games or uses the computers except for work (I'm not sure about the television). The ban lifts right after school every Friday and lasts the weekend. Apparently it works well; I may suggest to Mrs. Chef that we do the same, rather than instituting an outright ban.
