Family Meeting 3454365

Stress. That's what's causing her mysterious illnessed and our trips to the school to pick her up. I got home yesterday in prepartion for a battle. I always want to refrain from shouting and tears but sometimes we have to resort to tough tactics. I went to bed for a while to draw some energy from somewhere. She arrives in, pops into the room for a chat but I was ready for her. I told her I'd talk to her later, with emphasis on the word talk, implying it wasn't going to be a little chit-chat. She headed out with a face on her.

Mammy2 arrived in an hour later and I got up. The kid was tucked up in bed looking as angelic as is possible for a teenager to look. Not a peep from her. We had the sister-in-law calling over after 7 so I realised that we needed to get the meeting over with. I decided to do some theraputic ironing. Hey, I find it relaxing okay? Feck off. Its nothing to do with those tapes Mammy2 keeps switching on late at night with regards to ironing being very relaxing.

She came out with a face longer then a wet weekend. There was chats and the usual going around
in circles. We tried to empahsis that we were here to help. She suggested she move out. I tried not
to laugh out loud at that. I explained that she can't just ring us every time she wants to skip a class
because she's stressed and that she's going to have to start staying in school. Then she started crying. I am such a sucker but I held my ground. She said she was worried she was going to end up sick like Mam. She was pulling out the big guns. I still held my ground and explained that it was completly different and that she wasn't going to end up like Mam. A few more circles and we had come to some sort of compromise. I think. We'll see how long it lasts. Once that was over, I relaxed a bit. One thing down.

The sister in law and the mate dropped over with the laptop and I managed to sortof fix it. Only time willtell whether I sorted the problem out or not. She had 187 infected files on the machine, I'm amazed it was running at all. Damn spyware. We were supposed to be on Newstalk this morning talking about gay rights but Mammy2 wasn't in the mood. She had been on radio twice yesterday. Since the KAL case kicked off yesterday, I guess they want to see why us gays want rights. We're strange like that. Did I mention I have tomorrow and Friday off, am so looking forward to it. The enjoyment was somewhat curtailed by the fact that the parent teacher meeting is on Tuesday. This Tuesday. I need more preparation time. I can only hope she hasn't threatened the art teacher recently with me. I will hide under a table if this is the case.

When I go to these things, I always feel like the child again as opposed to the parent. Perhaps I should head in wearing stilts. Then again I might draw unwanted attention onto myself.