REALLY?

I get all the women's magazines and parenting magazines. I even enrolled in two middle school courses to learn about my middle school kid. (Actually the state required me to have them to teach this unique and unpredictable age). Prior to having children, I had considered myself an expert on this developmental stage. (Hence, I never took the classes). I taught in a middle school for over ten years. HA! Apparently teaching over 700 adolescents means nothing when dealing with ONE of your own. REALLY.
Apologies to all the former parents of my students for anything I said when I was single or married with no kids. I now know I am equal to the worst parents I ever had to deal with...I am a lethal combination of over-involved and under-competent. I know I am the one the teachers talk about in the halls and in the lunchroom (not in a good way). REALLY.
I appear as a slacker parent. And I know it. How horrifying is that to a teacher of teachers, right now? Very. However, I am the involved parent...I sign the assignment notebook, even though stuff isn't done and it will never be. Reading log...forgetta about it. Not going to happen. Explaining where the notebooks and folders are...gosh you got me, until I do a thorough Spring Cleaning or Summer Break rolls around. Same with the overdue library books.
Conferences are next week. Embarrassing. I have to talk to the single "me" when I was young and naive. I am considering giving her a stamped self-addressed envelope with enough postage for ten years from now when she wants to say sorry to me. She now has a ten year old and gets it. Because I will need it. REALLY!