Today is the end of a very long week.  As I told a friend yesterday at dinner, the honeymoon period at work is over.  The parents are beginning to express their concerns, some valid, others just senseless complaints, about what is going on in the classrooms.  It has been a while since I have had to deal directly with parental concerns and it is a very tiring process.  This week, nothing I said ever seemed to be the right thing and it just ended up being one of “those” weeks.  Parents certainly were not pleased with me as I did not give in to demands or deal with their crap.  They raised their voices at me, I ended the meeting and rescheduled it so they could return to deal with the situation appropriately.  I asked them to take their child with them to model appropriate adult behavior and successful skills to mediate conflict.  Strong statement – but not very well received.

Too bad.

Apparently, the previous principal gave in to parent demands and many took advantage of that.  Oh, no…not me.  I don’t have any of that nonsense. I am far too busy to give away my authority.  I am the commander of that ship and the passengers will not take charge.  It’s all about the kids.  It’s not about me, or the parents, its about the kids.  Once the conversation shifts away from that, we are off task and need to end.  “Let’s try again when you are ready to talk about the real issues” I would say as I get up from my desk and moved toward my office door.  The parents sat stunned.  One turned to me as she was leaving and said “You don’t play, do you.”  I replied “No, ma’am, I don’t have time to play when we talk about the students and my school.  Have a nice day.”

They will be back Monday at 8:00AM.

The work is piling up faster and faster and more and more data comes in from the initial student performance testing.  Some of it sits next to me here at home, but probably will not be touched as I begin to plan for the upcoming week’s events that include a “Coffee Talk with the Principal.”  Fun!

This evening I plan on ordering some Chinese food and view a dvd, probably a drama or chick-flick, something to redirect my energy and center my emotions.  I’ll probably clean the house and begin some laundry that will be a process through the weekend with ironing and steaming high on the list of priorities this weekend.  Mindless tasks are on for tonight and the weekend.

I know, sounds exciting, right?  Well…that is about all I can think of right now with my brain frazzled the way it is.

I am fried.