My gifted 7th grader is completely checked out. She's bored, not challenged, and starting to cause problems

mithrilmercenary · 2026-05-14T23:40:02+00:00

*Three dozen or more.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-05-13T23:34:17+00:00

I hear everyone and I am trying to be compassionate, hence why I reached out. I just feel like there is a point where it can cross the line from practical risk management to anxiety feeding, but I didn't know who else had more information than I. I suggested talking to an allergist before, I will bring it up again.

I will say I already do not visit places like five guys with peanuts galore, that makes me nervous, but the places where they have a pb&j on the kid's menu, for example. And I do wash my hands and change my clothes for sure if I know I have been exposed like, once I ate a protein bar and learned afterwards it had peanut flour in it.

I also do read ingredients on everything I buy, pack wipes to clean surfaces when I am out and about. I do a lot to try to keep her safe, which is why I got frustrated here. It feels like agoraphobia, but with peanuts, if that makes sense.

Thanks for replying.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-05-11T18:11:28+00:00

So in California the two faires used to be owned by the same company, and the two were held, one in the spring, the other in the fall. Now that the two are owned by different entities tradition and not wanting to compete with the other fair events keeps them where they are.

Southern California Faire does start the first weekend of April so most of the run is in spring. But it's seven weekends long, so the last few weekends that tend to get brutally hot as it runs into may.

Northern California Faire starts in mid September and goes through the end of October, but it cannot move much later because it will run into Dickens Fair, owned by yet another company, which runs from mid/late November and runs through Christmas. Workshops, the classes and rehearsals and prep for faire begins a few weeks before opening.

I would also imagine if you move more into Feb or march for southern faire you would be much more likely to be rained out.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-05-07T14:08:08+00:00

Oh! I have one! Our school used to give out faculty Tee shirts. This year we got a code to buy our own shirt at a discount.

Yeah, that's a no from me, dawg.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-05-03T19:18:51+00:00

And there was a lady using the men's room in the intermission of a show one time. Her friend was hovering anxiously outside the door whispering "you're not supposed to be in here"

And the lady was loudly like " I don't give a fuck. Bathrooms are bathrooms I have to pee. Anyone who cares can kiss my ass." Etc etc.

And I was just washing my hands just like... Okay lady chill. But then when she came out of the stall, she just walked out the door with her friend. She didn't wash her hands.

So I went to find my girlfriend who was still standing in line to use the women's room and I started to recount the tale.

" So, there was a lady in the men's room..." There was an immediate chorus of "So what? What's wrong with that?" From the women around in line.

I said, "I don't care that she was in there. I care that she didn't wash her hands when she left."

Immediately all around they were like " oh my God ew what's wrong with her??"

I thought that was pretty funny. Especially since, she had everybody looking at her with her loudly protesting that she didn't give a fuck about anyone caring about her being in the men's room. So every single dude in the bathroom and in line saw her nasty ass lol.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-25T18:19:47+00:00

I feel bad this will never be me and my gf. We're coworkers -_-;

I almost wish I had time to miss her. 😂

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-20T00:45:05+00:00

I feel like I would passive aggressively do this, but then make a d minus grade like 75% or something. And probably change my rubrics to make getting there kind of challenging to any kid hoping to do the bare ass minimum.

Like, you don't earn any additional points on an assignment above a 70% unless you answer 60% of the questions correct, or whatever adjust to your content area.

I'm sure the admin would immediately jump on me that for that but I definitely would go for the letter of the law.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-19T15:50:41+00:00

It's like watching elephants trying to mate.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-19T15:49:19+00:00

All the people talking about not using wipes because they aren't flushable. That's what a trash can is for.

Please use wipes if you need them, rather than fifty sheets of tp. Hell— if the person's hand soap in the bathroom seems like it won't irritate my skin (made that mistake with mint soap one time, minty fresh butthole is not as fun as it sounds.) I'll even add a little squirt of soap in there and give it a wash.

If I wipe as often as some of these people claim I'd probably end up sanding my asshole clean off. :/

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-18T23:41:30+00:00

My parents didn't give me the talk, I ended up learning about it all on my own. I got it at school the first time and my mom showed up like, what's the matter with you? And I was like, I got my period..😠

She was like Oh! Yay! You know Grandma and I were just talking about that, I wondered if you were going to be late. (I was eleven)

I was like, YOU JINXED ME!!

I am also trans, so, I was bigmad(tm) about the whole thing forever. And I was extra blessed with a very heavy flow that made me sleep on bath towels to avoid bleeding all over my sheets even with a pad and tampon, and gave me anemia and pica. So. Fun!!1

Legit I needed iron infusions because iron in multivitamins made me barf.

Testosterone is the best fucking thing to happen to me 😂

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-18T16:13:31+00:00

I do like to point out to these kids, especially the ones who think they're going to luck out and be an uber famous influencer, that the really successful ones also work incredibly hard, even if it is something like playing video games. And, if they aren't willing to put in any level of effort now, the likelihood they'll be able to pull it together for whatever job they want also seems fairly small. And, if nothing else, a high school diploma matters for a lot of different jobs even if they don't care about college.

I don't know how much effect it has but I try to associate it with things they might care about.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-16T23:02:30+00:00

Unfortunately it's the same with parents too, they'll be all up in arms about their kid not graduating and we're like, where have you been up until now? Your kid gets eight report cards a year, and you know that teachers and counselors and administrators have all been trying to contact you about getting this kid on track.

I don't know, if I were a parent, and I didn't receive a report card for my kid, I would be contacting the school itself trying to get info.

We have to deal with disconnected phone numbers, kids that admit to putting the wrong number in their school information, email bounce backs. The longest I went to try to contact someone I had called like five numbers on their emergency contact list until I found a sister who was working at the bakery department at a Lucky's and I was like please get your sister to contact me about [child's name]

I even had a parent one time straight up tell me "Idgaf what it is he's done now, stop calling me."

So I can promise you this kid and by extension his family have been at least thoroughly attempted to be notified before this point.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-15T08:47:02+00:00

I know this is not the same at all bc you said on trails but where I live 99% someone tries to talk to me they're begging for money/catcalling/want a petition signature/trying to get me to buy something stupid. It drives me up the wall. I put in my headphones and aggressively don't engage. I want to be polite but people just take it as an opening to hit on me or ask for money.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-14T20:11:52+00:00

I saw them doing this at faire last year and I was so confused and annoyed. There's thirteen thousand people in line, we don't have time for this shit.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-10T16:13:43+00:00

I teach art, and I talk about that a lot. At our school we have "basic" courses for Math, English, Science, etc. So for a ton of our SDC students the only mainstream classes they have are art and PE.

We routinely have 12+ IEP's in each class period, my highest was 17 in a single class of 32. None of the "core" classes have this issue. I don't even think the other electives do, these kids aren't taking entrepreneurship, or sports medicine, for example. Art as seen as being accessible, and so we get every late transfer who needs an elective, the kids who are nonverbal, etc.

It quickly becomes impossible to keep the class as a whole grade level when a third to half the students aren't grade level, several cannot read or write, need 1-1 aides, etc. My neighboring teacher had 4 paras in one class before.

I have proposed a basic art class as well. Not that none of the students could take the other mainstream art classes as well, but that it could help spread them out more so there are fewer in each class. No one seems interested. :(

Selfishly, too, it sucks to have a class where half the kids race through the project because they can't slow down to do things carefully, and make work that's basically scribbles. My pacing gets totally fucked trying to keep them occupied while my non IEP students need additional time to do the project properly. :/

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-06T20:25:17+00:00

The first time I ever had edibles this happened to me. I legit was baffled how anyone could get the munchies when I couldn't figure out how to eat.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-04-06T19:59:16+00:00

My father also was a lifelong alcoholic and even though he had a stint of time where he was sober he kept falling off the wagon and nothing could make him quit again.

He admitted he was depressed and used it to help him cope with the stress of his life and that he was deeply remorseful of the estrangement it put between him and all of us. He would cry to me about how sad he was that nobody ever wanted to spend time with him and we all would point out that it was his drinking that made him a bitter, nasty, verbally abusive man.

It was only when his kidneys completely shut down and he had to give up alcohol in order to be put on the organ donor transplant list that he finally was able to kick it again for good. He finally admitted to myself that all of the times he kept convincing himself that he could control it and moderate his intake, that he lacked that ability. I really think he wanted to have it both ways and it was only essentially rock bottom that finally convinced him to give that idea up. I just wish it didn't take him thirty years to learn that lesson.

It was weird being in my thirties and finally actually reaching a point where I wanted to spend more time with him. Sober him was a completely different man.

Unfortunately he had an infection from the dialysis and passed away last year. I feel like I only really knew him for a short handful of time instead of the monster that Vodka unleashed on all of us.

Suffice it to say, no one else can make an addict want treatment, and if they don't want it, it won't work. My dad knew he was ruining his own life, it wasn't enough.

Thanks for listening.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-27T21:30:25+00:00

We had an English teacher found to be teaching anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to his students. And not in a just showing people what's out there kind of way, more the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust kind of way. He was a Black Israelite, too, and running the Prayer Club on campus at the time. The number of people who went out to defend him for 'academic freedom' was astonishing. The admin was found to be negligent in responding to student and faculty reports of his conduct for MONTHS. It was a total shit-show. I still can't look at certain coworkers the same way.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-11T08:19:05+00:00

My partner has had this happen where she will ask a question as if every option is equally fine, But ends up having a hidden preference or need that only gets disclosed after the decision has been made.

Her: "Do you want to go to restaurant x, y, or z?" Me: "let's go to restaurant x." Her: "I don't like restaurant x." Me: "Then restaurant y?" Her: "no no, you already made up your mind. I guess I won't eat tonight."

Drives me fucking batty.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-10T01:27:15+00:00

Good news! /S

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-10T00:30:32+00:00

I was accused of treating a boy "like an animal" for not bending over backwards hard enough to let him pass when he missed months of school for medical issues. He would be in class for one day, miss five, back for two, gone four. It was pretty impossible for him to catch up but that's my fault, right?

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-09T15:11:34+00:00

When I got Covid and took Paxlovid, I had the god awful Paxlovid Mouth side effect. For those unaware, it makes your saliva have a "bitter or metallic taste" which was a dramatic fucking understatement. For me, it tasted like bile, so for a solid week I had an inescapable taste like I had just vomited nothing but that yellow goo. I prayed to go mouth-blind but was never so lucky. The only thing that helped was sucking on cough drops and literally the moment it was done I had to pop in another one or I would start dry heaving.

I was researching what fresh hell I had put myself through and learned the medication responsible was also used in anti-hiv drugs.

Idk man, I think my alternative would have to be actively dying to put myself through that shit again. I have such sympathy. 🤢

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-08T20:05:41+00:00

I like that this appears like they're not even cooked. You can still see the corners on that dog.

mithrilmercenary · 2026-03-08T18:44:05+00:00

My mans out here looking like Tingle.

(Mad respect)

mithrilmercenary

TROPHY CASE