Banging my head

................against a brick wall.

Have spent all day reassuring kids that the world will not end tomorrow as a result of the experiment in Switzerland with particle generators (am hoping I wasn't lying about that, but hey, it won't matter if I was wrong!)

At the end of the day, I did my Tuesday afternoon bus duty and watched in disbelief (although unsurprised at the same time - is that a paradox or an oxymoron?) as two of our senior students nearly got killed on a busy road due to their lack of concern over the big metal machines that travel down the road. One kid was saved only by the fact that another kid (a girl!) grabbed his collar and pulled him back off his bike as he was about to just cycle straight out. The other one, well....

he cycled down the middle of the road from school, one handed and wobbling as he was busy plugging his earphones in ...he then cycled sraight out onto the main road without looking, in front of the parked bus that I was standing in and a car that was coming past had to brake hard not to hit him. The little monkey then weaved in and out of the cars and then cycled down the road doing a lovely weave in front of the cars as well. All blissfully ignorant of how close he was to being in an ambulance!

SO, I'm a teacher. I have a duty of care. So I figured I best ring his mum to let her know that she needs to have a little chat with her son.

If you got a phone call, explaining that your child wasn't in trouble, but could you please just explain why the cycling behaviour I just described was dangerous, your response would be "Yeah, no problem, I'll wring his neck, lock his bike up ...." etc. I'm hoping that most reasonable people would be grateful for the concern and the 'heads up'

OH NO - I'm clearly living on a different planet, because the conversation I had resulted in this woman repeatedly asking me if I was arguing with her, her having a go that we require kids and their parents to sign a contract about safe cycling if they bring their bikes to school ("I don't see the point. I have to sign one every year. Its stupid and pointless").

I kept my cool - I'm a professional! I brought the conversation (hahahaha) to a close. Then I found this wall and went and hit my head against it repeatedly.

JOY.

Time for tea, then am going to suspend myself from a high wall with rope (and a harness and a bag of chalk - climbing.....don't panic)

Happy End of the world tomorrow. Hope it all goes well.

:-)