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If you’re new around here, confessions is a time for us to all unburden ourselves of the silliness we’re feeling at the moment. I share dumb things, then you share dumb things, and we all have a better day because of it.
Let’s get started!
Confession 1
Our security cameras will send you a notification if there is movement around the house. It classifies it as “person”, “animal”, or just “vehicle”.
Troy has giant feet (size 14, cause you need a strong base to support THOSE calves) and leaves a pair of slip-on shoes by the door. Once, I put them on to take the garbage out and was walking like one does with shoes that are way too big.
When I got back in the house, I had a notification that our cameras picked up animal movement. Real cool.
Confession 2
Please, please, please read this thru the lens of the fact that I come from a family of teachers, and I fully support teachers and cannot imagine the slog they have to go through to make pandemic school happen.
But here, we go. I do not read the weekly Google Classroom summary that gets sent out every week. I know they have to do work to make this happen. And I know many parents demand it. But I do not want it or care.
I completely understand that it does not work for every family or kid, but here is my reasoning: I have already passed sixth grade. Quite successfully in fact! It is my kid’s turn. My parents did not hover or get weekly updates to make sure I was doing my work. It was fully expected that I would do it and ask for help when I needed it. And I did.
My sister teaches high school and spends an incredible amount of time communicating with students and parents to let them know they are falling behind. And nobody gives a rat’s ass about her efforts until it is grade time and they need to know “what can be done to get a passing grade”. Um, you could have done your work two months ago like you knew you were supposed to do.
I fully get that every child is different. And I have friends/family who have kids that need constant monitoring because of learning disabilities or just general “DGAF syndrome”. But for me? I want an opt-out button.
I want to give my kid’s teachers that time back. Let me opt out so they don’t have to update me every time my kid turns in an assignment, logs into the computer, or so much as farts.
This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but if my kid doesn’t do his work, he needs to fail the course. He does not need to be handheld to a passing grade. The lesson he is learning from that is “I can slack off and then someone saves me so it all works out in the end”.
Let him fail sixth-grade math so that he doesn’t fail 12th-grade math! Hard lessons are better when the stakes are lower. Again, this does not apply to every family/kid/situation!
During fall conferences, one of Jack’s teachers said “I’m sure you’ve been checking the online portal and are curious about why there aren’t grades posted yet. I’m sorry, I’m just behind”. First off, no, I haven’t been checking.
Second, of course, you are behind! Society has put you in an impossible position of teaching middle school online with no actual training on how to do remote learning. Please don’t apologize, you are doing your damn best.
I want teachers to be free to do their job and just teach. I want my opt-out button, damnit.
Confession 3
I fully resisted ordering groceries online for curbside pick up. I never mind grocery shopping and want to select certain things to look a certain way, because hello, how food looks is kind of my job.
But, when the lockdowns started, I eventually started ordering online, and you know, it’s been so easy. And it saves me so much time. And by doing curbside, I’m reducing the number of people inside the store, which allows for those who choose to/have to shop in-person to have more space.
Oh, and in terms of picking out the perfect produce? I think we all know that went out the window when I used a wooden lemon from my son’s play kitchen for a photo. That ship has sailed!
Confession 4
Troy’s truck is pretty old by current vehicle standards and it doesn’t have Bluetooth or AUX abilities. He has an after-market Bluetooth thing he can plug into his cigarette lighter so he can listen to music or podcasts from his phone.
When you turn his truck on, a gentle voice with an English accent says “waiting for pairing”. But for a year I thought he was saying “waiting for Perry”. The voice is similar to many audiobook narrators that I listen to, so for a solid 12 months I thought Troy was listening to an audiobook called “Waiting for Perry”. I could not for the life of me figure out why it was taking him so long to listen to that book!
Confession 5
Troy is not a picky eater. He will pretty much eat anything, even if he doesn’t like it. That makes him the WORST tester to have around for being a food blogger.
Me: What do you think of this new dish?
Troy: Tastes great! Put it on the blog.
Me: That’s canned dog food.
Troy: Is there enough for seconds?
Confession 6
I LOVE beets and eat them every morning with breakfast in the form of Encurtido. Every time I make a new batch, Troy says “enjoy your spicy dirt apples”. And yet, he would still eat beets. See #5 above.
Ok, friends, your turn! What do you need to confess?
Want more confessions? Read more here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Or read the whole darn archive here.
I have to agree with you on Confession 2 and here is why, it is a LIFE LESSON to know when you can slack and when you can’t. How are kids going to learn this if we don’t let them practice this.
I hundred percent agree about the Google classroom. I do not need nor do I want to do school over. My daughters job is school so it’s up to her to do the work. I have a job already, thank you very much. Confessions:
1. I HATE people turning around in my driveway. It’s large and people are constantly pulling in, backing out and driving back down the street. News flash, the street goes all the way around follow the road. We busted our butts paying for and installing pavers, my driveway is not part of the road.
2. People who don’t want to wear a mask because they “don’t like being told what to do.” Seriously!? Life must be very rough for them, all those pesky rules meant to keep them safe.
I bet it is even more annoying in the dark because I’m sure their headlights bounce into your house.
The mask thing drives me nuts. Is your life really so easy that being asked to wear a piece of cloth for the good of others is so tough?
I am laughing my butt off at “spicy dirt apples”, so point for Troy.
I 100% agree with you about the teacher communication thing. Why on earth should they have to do it for everyone? It should be opt-in, if you feel like you need it, then you get it. Like you, I was in school at a time period when the only communication with parents about school was report cards every quarter. If I needed help, it was understood I’d ask for it.
My confession: I get SO. ANGRY. when people don’t return business emails. Like, have some consideration and courtesy for other people. And yet I must be in the minority, because when I respond to people’s questions at my volunteer position, they are honestly surprised and thankful to hear from me. That should NOT be the exception, but the norm.
Yes on the report card! Except for K-6 I went to the school where my mom taught, so I guess if I was being a turd, my teachers just had to tell my mom in the staff room. HA!
I totally get what you mean with the emails. With my last office job, clients would be shocked that not only would they get a response, but it would be prompt. Makes zero sense!
1. I think a little less of someone who doesn’t know how to fold a fitted bed sheet.
2. I hate cheesecake.
3. I was in charge of making 200+ mini cheesecakes for a friends wedding. I needed taste testers to make sure they were good when I was recipe testing. I needed honest answers, so I set up the tasting with controls. I served 1 with lemon curd, 1 with raspberry coulee, and one with Thai fish sauce. One taste tester ate the entire one with fish sauce and said it was delicious. This is why I have trust issues.
FISH SAUCE cheesecakes???? OMG Laurel!
As college instructor I appreciate your willingness to let your child fall flat.
I too have been doing curbside pick up. It saves me money! No impulse buys!
I don’t find it saves me that much money, but I know most of my friends have found that it does.
And I worked in higher ed before I started blogging FT. So, perhaps seeing all those students fall flat because no one ever required them to own their decisions might have impacted how I parent.
I can’t think of many confessions to write about but one. We are retired so not in a big hurry to go places. Now that we have a house without carpet or little kids toys, like legos, we bought a robot vacuum. It does a pretty good job. It doesn’t save us time though because we stand around watching it do it’s thing!
I love that! Did you name it?
1. Teachers should make 1 million dollars a day. Raise my school taxes and make it happen.
2. Teacher’s aides should make way more than minimum wage. There is not enough money in the world to compensate for the number of times I have had to say get off youtube and pay attention while my kids have been learning at home.
3. I too hate that freaking google classroom email. For me it’s inaccurate and not helpful. I’m playing mom, teacher’s aide, and full-time job here. Throw me a bone. I’m trying to keep them on track but if even the children can’t find all the required assignments how they heck can I?
4. The amount of curbside pick up I do makes me feel like I’m about a heartbeat away from being one of the people in WALL-E where they just ride around in a chair all day.
5. I seriously can’t wait for it to be safe enough to send my kids back to school. We need to love each other from separate locations for 6-8 hours a day for a while.
I agree with you fully on 1&2. I am the daughter of a teacher and know how hard she worked. My mom graded papers all night and all weekend. And my friend is a classroom aide and received two concussions in about four weeks.
Your WALL-E comment made me giggle!
I am a middle school teacher and I love you. Thank you for honoring our time and effort!
Erin, thank YOU for being a middle school teacher. Despite a degree in elementary education, you couldn’t pay me enough money to deal with pre-teen/teen nonsense. Keep up the good work!
Thank YOU for all that you do!
My husband is also not a picky eater. He will eat things he doesn’t really like the taste of, just to avoid food waste, as well. Food is not entertainment to him, it’s sustenance. Unless it’s intensely spicy or spoiled, he’ll eat it.
So when we first got married we were both vegetarian. I tried making vegetarian meatballs using this first-generation soy mush, you know the kind, they sold it in chubs to make you think it was comparable to beef. *I* thought they were pretty good, if a little dense. My husband said they were good, he ate them up, and I put them on the menu rotation. I made them about twice a month or something.
Fast forward 10 years or so, and after our third child was born both he and I were diagnosed with a severe carnitine deficiency. Carnitine is an essential thing mostly found in meats, and babies don’t synthesize it, they only get it from their moms in utero and later from their milk (or fortified formula). Two decades of vegetarianism and three vegan pregnancies had pretty much depleted my carnitine funds. So I had to go back on meats. After I adjusted to this, I made meatballs (I was craving spaghetti and meatballs) with beef for the first time ever in 20 years or something.
Well, he RAVED about those meatballs. And finally confessed that he had never, ever, liked the soy “meatballs” we’d eaten back in the day. “WHY didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have made them again?” “Well, you liked them, and you worked so hard to make them and they were at least edible. But they were really dense.”
Argh. All that wasted soy gunk.
Oh, no! All that wasted soy and your time!