Time to scrape the honor student bumper stickers off.

At the McGilliduddy household, home of not one, but TWO honor students being home schooled by Dear Old Mom things ain't lookin' too good.

So far when dad came home he found his two honor students had been suspended and he had to fire their teacher for drinking on the job.

My guess is that this family is not alone.

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On the other hand I have heard of a couple of families here and there that are actually using this as an opportunity not only to make sure the kids don't wind up behind the 8-Ball when school resumes but to teach them life skills, too.

One father reports that he sits down with his older kids and goes through the family bills with them and has taught them how to go through and read a credit card statement.

Kudos to those people.
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Back in the day I got hurt and lost about 8 weeks of school. My mom would drop by the school every couple of days and pick up assignments, books and what have you and bring them home to me. 

I didn't spend all day studying, just a few hours a day. Probably an awful lot less time than I would have spent in the classroom if I wasn't laid up.

When I finally dragged my sorry ass back to class after a few days my teacher handed me a note to bring home.

The note said that I was actually at the head of my class.

Of course I was back in class and resumed my bad habits and it wasn't long before I was back to normal but it does show you that a pair of concerned parents can make quite a difference.

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I once had a sticker that said 'My kid beat up your honor student' and caught hell for it a couple of times from various outspoken soccer moms.

Of course there is nothing worse than moms telling people how wonderful their children are.

The carry on about how he/she graduated from Harvard or someplace and you know the little bastard is probably out on parole for some damned thing...unless they are still in the can.

One time I was bored enough so I told a bragging couple that I was damned proud of my youngest because he just earned his sergeant stripes in the French Foreign Legion in under four years and it usually takes over ten.

The mom replied, "I don't know what that is."

The father said he did and his eyes got huge. He looked almost slack jawed. "He made SERGEANT in the French Foreign Legion? In four years? Holy $hit!"

"My kids seem to like the road less traveled," I replied. "I have another boy that took a six month course and started at almost $250,000 per year."

"What's he do?" asked the father.

"He's a diver for an oil company," I said. "He's presently in the North Sea doing underwater welding and demolition work."

The mother jumped in. "He's making that kind of money right out of college?" she asked.

"College?" I replied. "He didn't even finish high school."

The mother went off like a skyrocket babbling how it wasn't fair to the kids who went to college wound up with expensive student loans and so on and so forth.

I feigned innocence and suggested her son try out for the diving school. The father interrupted.

"No way in hell! He's finishing college!" he snapped.

"I still don't think it's fair," whined the mother. "Paying that much money to a high school dropout."

Apparently dad decided he didn't care if he had to camp on the couch.

"Why? You went to college and you're still an idiot!"

I decided I heard my mother calling me so I took my leave.



Sometimes I have a love/hate relationship with myself. God gave me the talent to tell someone something totally outrageous with a straight face.

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To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY