Never a Dull Moment

I've had an interesting week with the kids this week. I've gotten calls from both of their teachers, and that's not a common occurrence.

Wednesday I came home from work and there was a message on my voice mail from A.'s teacher. She wanted me to call her back at the school to talk about A. Uh oh. So I called her back right about the time the kids got home from school. Both of them told me they'd had a great day. So she wants to know if A. talked to me about why she'd called. Well, I had just gotten the message so hadn't had a chance to ask her. Well, her teacher just wanted to let me know that A. had said "Damn" that day. She hadn't been mean or malicious. It was a frustrated "damn." She had made a mistake on a math problem and said it then. The worst part of the whole thing, though, was that she told her teacher that she says it "all the time at home and it's ok with Mommy." She said WHAT?? So the teacher had a talk with her about character. I reinforced what her teacher told her and reminded her that it was unacceptable to use that kind of language. I also explained to her that it wasn't ok to tell lies like the one she told her teacher. Of course she's not allowed to talk like that!

So this morning I get a call from J.'s teacher. She wants to know if I had seen a permission form for a field trip that he had brought home about a week ago. Well, I had seen the permission form, but not until last night. And I signed it and sent it back with him. Or thought I had anyway. I handed it to him and told him to put it in his backpack. Well, the backpack went to school empty. Then she asks me if he'd told me that he needs a signature on his planner every day. They use a planner to write their homework assignments and parents are supposed to sign them. If mom or dad doesn't sign the planner, the child has "silent lunch." I explained to her that yes, I was aware of this, but that I'm attempting to teach J. that HE's the one responsible for making sure he does his homework and then bringing me the planner with his completed homework to check and sign off. I do remind him every afternoon to get his homework done, but he's old enough that I shouldn't have to stay on his back about everything. She laughed and said she understood, and then told me that J. says I'm the problem. Well, of course he does! It's always Mom's fault. He never hesitates to nag me about the things that he wants to do (like about the permission form yesterday), but conveniently forgets about the things he's supposed to do. So I had a talk with him this afternoon about not blaming everything on Mom. If he makes a mistake or forgets something, he needs to admit to it without blaming others.

What am I going to do with these two?