380. Bad mother - good teacher

 I am searching through these blog posts to see if I can find the post about my son filling in the form about the future. 

I have Baby sitting at the family computer in the family room. I have placed a note pad and a red marker next to her.

'You need to write down the things that interest you.'

She looks at me with a look I cannot decipher. And I leave her to it. This sounds really bad but if I stay next to her within 3 minutes I'll lose my temper.

Then I go away and do my own thing and try to forget about her sitting there doing something super important for her future. 

I feel terribly lonely. Her siblings won't help. 

'She's just a Baby!'

'You parents are responsible. As the baby of the family she has been spoiled rotten. Still is.'

'Tell her to go and get a job. That's what you told me!'

So I sit and sigh. Then I notice she has left her seat behind the screen. I get up and get ready to shout at her to come back this instant but then I calm down as I red writing on the notepad. I take a look, happy that my sensible down-to-earth mother approach is doing wonders.

It reads: mummy I love you.

I forget about the shouting. And decide to think some more. What if this was about my students, would I lose patience so quickly? What would I do?

...

I know!

I would make a worksheet! 

I grab hold of the note pad, stick the I love you mummy message on the refrigerator and start the worksheet.

It has a big circle in the middle of the page and write my future, my choices. Then I throw arrows coming out of the circle in the center and draw some more circles with a double red line. They all offer simle solutions : do nothing, get a job, take a year out, go to Africa with mum and dad, party for a year, travel for a year, go and stay with family members who live far far way, become a farmer and take over my great-uncle's farm, het a job, go to university, go to school, become a photographer, a camera woman, join the army, the navy, the paratroopers or the deep-sea divers, etc. I cannot stop I have so many ideas I wish it were my future that was on the cards I'd get to do some really crazy stuff this time round! Then I draw some more arrows with tiny red circles to be filled in. Then I do a legend which says: red: NO, orange: maybe, green: definitely. 

And I shove it under her bedroom door. 

'Please fill this in! Due in 30 minutes. Down in the lounge!'