Interventions And Opinions

Some people love an argument. I don’t mean the fireworky extravaganza that is accompanied by a cup of tea being slammed down on the kitchen counter, a black cloud of stormy RAGE, tinged with the after-storm glowy hint of smugness that you are of course right;

“I TOLD YOU ABOUT THIS MEAL OUT WITH MY PARENTS MONTHS AGO!!!!!!!! I EVEN WROTE IT IN YOUR DIARY!!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!”

as you lob the diary at his head.

These rows are ugly for about 10 seconds, but feel really good ultimately. Like getting into a hot bath with cold feet and you’re not sure if that feeling of pleasure/ pain  is because you feet are too cold or the water too hot but then you are like, oooh yeah baby, perfect.

It’s like you are WINNING at bath making. And the rows.

But in this blog I don’t make reference to those types of rows. In this blog I am referring to the rows caused by people who love to rile up the previously calm seas of others who are bobbing along nicely just to be nasty and create conflict because it’s fun for them. You know the people, right? We call them “bastards”.

This week in schools in England two very different things happened. In a school in Cambridgeshire some conkers fell from a tree and into the path of some children. They didn’t have LED’s, connect to the internet and were not endorsed by a celebrity. The children were frightened for their lives and the head teacher was frightened for the future of mankind. Twitchy that 95% of children at his school didn’t know how to play the game “Conkers”, the Head Teacher staged an intervention. He wrote to each and every parent, asking if they were OK with the school reintroducing the game. No one objected.

In another school at about the same time, this time in South London, a teacher staged her own intervention. Brought in to help this failing (note the word) school, she politely requested that parents refrain from smoking at the school gates. Shocked that there even was an option of puffing away by the school gates (it’s not a pub garden. It’s not like the school have displayed a sign saying “Smoking area”), I was subsequently and sadly therefore less shocked at the response. Big surprise the request wasn’t received with open nicotine stained hands . The first reaction to the Head Teacher’s notion was when she became aware there was a petition against her, entitled

“Get The Bitches Out!”.

Ah.

Not content with said petition, some parents were planning to stage a smoking picket line (yes you read that correctly) in retaliation. Their plan was to all line up and light up and puff away as their children skipped out of an enriching learning environment and straight into a wall of ignorance and bubbling animosity. And fag smoke.

It would seem these parents are outraged that their personal right and freedom to smoke outdoors have been called into question. Perhaps they should go and join those arsebiscuits who smoke outside hospitals. Create a lynch mob and advertise it on facebook in text speak.

This whole thing made me really sad. Then really angry.

No wonder Offsted felt that this school required the skills of an intervention Head Teacher. Sadly it seems, as often happens, perspective and common sense got lost in an almost mob mentality, with the mob’s kids being dragged along for the ride. Sort of like parts of a squashed hedgehog on your car tyres as you carry on speeding. It’s not even, for me, that these parents feel they can’t cope without a fag for 10 minutes on dropping off and arrival (which is sad but is a whole other issue, and don’t get me wrong, smoke if you want to, I don’t care or mind, it’s nothing to do with me), it’s the fact that they cannot open their teeny, tiny brains and look at the much bigger, brighter and more hopeful brains of the children being evicted from school at 3pm. Who are being made to walk through, not only the second hand smog of fag air, but to an inevitable destiny of a tomb of ignorance.

I don’t tend to be overtly opinionated, each to their own views etc. Have your opinion, whatever. But don’t have rubbish ones. Like this. It’s all so “school playground”. But guess what, it isn’t the kids acting like kids, it’s the responsible (*cough* bullshit *cough*) adults. It’s arguing for arguments sake. Which is childish and pointless and stupid and frustrating. Just slam a cup of tea down on the work surface and be indignant in the privacy of your own home for a bit before opening your mind to alternatives. Don’t be a twat.

 

 

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17 Responses to Interventions And Opinions

  1. Russ says:

    Great post Han.

  2. Emily says:

    Love this blog x

    • Hannah says:

      Cheers mate! I don’t tend to get cross often over other peoples parenting ideas, each to their own, but the ideas of these guys are just pure guff. x

  3. sarahmo3w says:

    Totally ridiculous! Can’t they see how ignorant and stupid they look? I hate to see parents smoking on the school run, it’s so inconsiderate.

    • Hannah says:

      I didn’t even know it happened! and the smoking, yeah you know, each to their own, but to create a picket line?! Madness!

  4. This is brilliant, and so true. It’s the kind of thing that makes me want to bang people’s heads together and shout ‘remember you are the adults here!’

  5. Awesome rant!
    What total twuntnards! Some people are unbelievably stupidly selfish!,

  6. hurrahforgin says:

    Seriously?! Don’t be a twat – great mantra to life 🙂

  7. Tom Briggs says:

    Excellent post! What are some people like eh? Can’t argue with your philosophy at the end either!

  8. Sue Lucas says:

    It has been known that the children of these twat parents grow up into responsible adults – sadly not often..:(

  9. Helen says:

    Great post and I completely agree. I remember reading this story twice because I couldn’t quite believe it. So nasty and unnecessary. Let’s hope those kids are getting an education in more than just the Curriculum and become better people than their parents.

  10. Sarah Miles says:

    Unbelievable. Or, sadly not. Like you say, the smoking issue aside, the fact they can’t get over their own limited opinions to see what sort of example they set their owns kids. Just adds to my own opinion that for many parenting is an ‘I’m alright Jack’ experience where heaven forbid their own lives are disrupted…

    Thanks for linking up to #SFTW, great blog.

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