So, there's this woman in my ward who is in charge of taking care of the kids in nursery for a couple of hours during church. She's a little weird; a little off, but she's nice enough. Anyway, in the past, she has made a couple of remarks about how difficult it is taking care of Beauty during those two hours. She's never flat-out complained about it, but Hubby and I could tell that she felt it was a burden. Since Macho turned 18 mo. old six months ago, Hubby or I have made it a point to stay in the nursery because Macho gets very upset if one of us isn't in there with him. Which means that for the last 6 months, one of us is always in there watching over BOTH kids. Surely, the nursery teacher shouldn't feel so "burdened" anymore, right? Well....
A few weeks ago, I believe it was the first Sunday of the month, someone came in to find out the new number of kids in the nursery. The nursery teacher said the number, and then she said, "Though, Beauty really should be in Primary, but, you know...." This remark bothered me, and mind you, both Hubby and I were standing right there. I spoke up and said, "Well, Beauty just can't be in Primary. She doesn't sit for very long and she wouldn't be able to understand the lessons and be quiet for long periods of time."
There is another boy in the nursery class who is also a special needs child (he's really sweet, btw, and his dad always stays in nursery with him too). I bring him up because the nursery teacher had the nerve to look at that boy's father (and mind you, this little boy is a whole year younger than Beauty) and she said, "So, when is he
going to Primary?"
What the heck???? I mean, is her calling as teacher so terrible, so unbelievably more difficult by having these two special kids in the nursery? I mean, it's not like she's really even teaching a lesson anyway. The nursery has little kids in it and all they do is play with toys for two hours and eat snacks in the middle. That's it! Why is it so terrible for this woman to have to "put up" with my little girl? And on top of that, the parents are always in the class with their kids, so it's not like she's really watching them anyway!
Oh, and she even had the audacity to make a remark straight to Hubby's face a little later that same day. Hubby and I have been trying to gently ease Macho into staying in the nursery by himself, without one of us in the room with him. This particular Sunday, Hubby stepped out the room, but he continued watching the kids through the little window in the door. A little while later, Macho started crying, so Hubby went back inside immediately. The nursery teacher said, "He's crying because Beauty won't put the toys away. Something's gotta change." She was almost implying that we, Beauty's parents, were not doing a sufficient job with our daughter. RUDE!!!!
Even Hubby got upset about it, but he didn't say anything. I, on the other hand, would LOVE to lay into this woman and set her straight: "You think it's hard dealing with her for two hours? You have NO IDEA what we go through with her day in and day out, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Let's see YOU do any better!" But no, I'm refraining because I know that if I did talk to her, even if I was polite about it, the message wouldn't get across. She's just one of those people who would shrug it off, or she'd say, "Oh, I didn't mean anything by it," but then she'd continue to make remarks anyway. She just doesn't get it.
So the question I face: What do I do about it? What can I do about it? Would anything I try work? People like her just make me so angry because they're so IGNORANT! And even more than that, they are completely unsympathetic and uncaring when it comes to children like Beauty. I just want to hit this woman over the head with a "CLUE BAT," you know - you hit them on the head and then all of a sudden, they get it? Yeah, someone needs to invent the Clue Bat.
(BTW, check out my autism blog: http://speakingonthespectrum.blogspot.com/ )
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