Now I understand why tigers eat their young... ;o)

I don’t know what has been going on with the A-man lately. He is just so grouchy all the time, and for the last couple of days, he seems to be set off at the smallest thing. I don’t know how many times I have heard, “I’m so tired” from him, yet when I suggest he goes to bed earlier, he doesn’t go.
This morning he was up early – almost a full hour before his bus was set to arrive – yet, again this morning he was ‘rushed’ at the last minute and wasn’t ready. I reminded about half an hour before the bus was to arrive that he needed to shower. He grunted and went in to his bedroom. 15 minutes later, I open the door to his room to see what he is doing; he’s lying in bed. Now, with only 15 minutes until the bus arrives, I tell him he is going to be pressed to both shower and dress in time, and I get yelled at because he still “needs to go to the washroom!”
He went to the washroom and was back in his room with plenty of time to dress, yet I was calling him to tell him the bus was approaching the house. He did not have his shower. For the second day in a row.

I was just alerted by a text message – it was the A-man asking S to do something that he forgot, I guess. I replied that it was being done, and that I was not very impressed with him this morning. Will be interesting to see if (or how) he responds.

He responded with “I’m sorry Mom. I will do better from now on.”

I don’t want him to feel guilty, but at this point in his life, I want him take a bit more responsibility for his own personal hygiene and self care! Will have to try and explain all of this to him tonight, I guess. Hopefully I catch him in the right frame of mind, and if not, it will have to wait.

I called S’s school yesterday to talk to the principal about my participation in the Grade 8 end of year trip. S has told us the first installment for the trip is due tomorrow, yet I haven’t been told if I (as a chaperone) will receive a discounted rate. S has expressed a few times that he doesn’t want me to go – he thinks it will be embarrassing to be the only student to have his mom there.
I can understand his point, but given his history, I can also see why the school feels that it is important I attend. Anyway, when I was talking to the principal, I told her how nice it has been to not be in constant contact with the school and how S has been having such a great year. (touching wood, now) The Principal then told me that she had been approached by S’s EA and that the EA didn’t think it would right to have me on the trip.
Now, I’m not sure if I should be insulted or not. This is the same women that wouldn’t allow S to go on the bike trip at the end of last school year unless I could attend, and yet she now doesn’t want me to go with them to Ottawa? This is a three day trip, and is more than 5 hours from home!
Hopefully she is requesting this because S has been having such a good year that she doesn’t think its necessary, but still, I don’t think that as his EA that should be her call. The decision must be that of mine and the principal. Period. The Principal and I left it that I would submit payment for S’s portion of the trip, and we would simply address my participation as the time got closer and we would then have a better feeling of S’s state of mind, etc. I would like for him to not have to have me there – it would be great for him – but I am going to have to keep that option open, just in case.