Westley has always known Claire. She's always been a constant in his life, whether it be as his babysitter, his secret Santa, as his pretend-girlfriend, his confident, as the person he could always rely on.
But she's also always been the girl he lov...
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I'm forty years old and our daughter has just been diagnosed with ADHD. The teachers were complaining about the fact she never focused in class and that she was basically a bad student. Naturally, they were saying that she wasn't smart. If she didn't fit in their vision of what a perfect student should look like, clearly she couldn't be intelligent.
Claire and I weren't fazed by what the teachers were saying. We know our kids. We know our daughter is a smart cookie. So we had her tested and ADHD was the verdict.
It's really not that big of a deal. We always knew Eloise had more energy than the average kid and that she was often easily distracted as we liked to put it.
What does surprise me is the fact that Eliah isn't. It's true that he's got more of a quiet furry, while Eloise could run around a room a hundred times. After her brother has warped up a scheme that would necessitate her to do it, of course. She's still his oblivious minion.
I just don't like the fact that doctors want us to pump our kids with more medication than anyone could ever need at that age. And I don't like the fact that teachers are essentially calling our kid dumb because their archaic way of teaching doesn't work for her.
I know it bothers Eloise, that she isn't getting better grades, that she takes longer than other kids to understand what the teacher is explaining. And she asks a lot of questions in class when she does pay attention, for like ten minutes, and it gets on the nerves of other students. And that makes Eliah angry and vindictive towards those kids.
We had to go to the principal office a couple of times because of it. The teachers can't prove anything though. Our son is too smart to get caught. The teachers have a lot of hypothesis. They all sound like things Eliah would do, like putting fire ants or spiders in someone's desk, or cutting the laces of kids shoes, and poking holes in kids' coat pockets. Some kids' projects and homework have disappeared from their bags too.
Sure, I don't think Eliah should be bullying anyone and I don't want him to start his criminal mastermind career just yet, but if he's only doing it to the kids that are being mean to his sister, and the teachers can't even prove it, I have a hard time grounding him.
Claire is better at that. I think our kids are a bit more scared of their mother. She's the one ruling the house with an iron fist. I'm just there skipping around the house hugging everyone. I don't have it in me to ground them. When they look at me with their adorable eyes and their dimples and their cute little faces I can't be mad at them.
They're just like their mother in that sense. I would do anything for them. These three have me completely wrapped around their fingers. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
