EPIDEMIC

I don't know where it started, or exactly when. I just know that my children have started a mutiny. Letters from teachers, calls from the Primary, quiet whisperings from friends. Your child was rude in class, your child keeps interrupting, your child refuses to do their homework. Do my children think they are so different from the other children? Where did they get the idea they could behave like this? What do I do?

When they are at school they fight with the teachers. I've even been told that a journal entry read; "if you don't understand or believe in recycling then I don't have the time to explain it to you." What the heck? Are you serious? I admire their guts, but am embarrased at the tone. Another teacher mentioned that my child answered a question wrong regarding Brigham Young. When I spoke to the child he said, "well the book and the teacher were wrong. My answer was right, I don't care what the teacher said." WOW!

One of the worst was a teacher saying, "what is wrong with your son. He used to be so helpful and willing in class. Now he is a smart aleck, skipping lessons and disregarding the rules." Wait, not my child! So is this where this love and logic comes in? At what point do you stop loving and start beating. Seirously, there won't be any physical harm, but I have thought about repainting the house - inside and out, building at fence, weeding the garden - all at the hands of five very troubled children.

If this is an epidemic I want a remedy. If this is a phase, it's over. Whatever this is - someone help my children before I sell them to the pirates!