Crime and Punishment

In the past I have blogged about those parents who just allow their kids to be losers. In fact, there are some parents who basically promote their child's future loser-dom by excusing them out of any shred of responsibility. Needless to say, I do NOT heart those parents. As I am writing these words, I am picturing one parent in particular who has been known to say, "but how important is it that he learn to read?"

Um, pretty freaking important.

(sigh)

However, today, I came in contact with the exact opposite type of parent. I spoke with the Overzealous Parent and witnessed their somewhat disturbing rant at the barely humane hour of 8 a.m.

Just a note to self...do not party like a rock star in Vegas and then come back to work expecting to be coherent or remotely intelligent. It was not my best week ever.

Some background:

Over the last few weeks I have one friend who has been handing me sub-par work filled with avoidable mistakes. She is rushing through everything and just being lazy in general. I have had both of her cousins who are AMAZING students and up until recently, my current friend has also been a good student. She and I have several conversations about "doing your best" and "taking pride in your work" and "working carefully"...you know, the usual BS pep talks.

Now I normally give a pretty mean pep talk that borders on ( well, I'll just say it) inspirational. Seriously, I'm good. However, this time, my words meant nothing. My friend continued to hand in crap.

And this was not the week to hand me crap. Let's just say my patience was left floating in a cocktail in Vegas.

So I decided to send a note home to mom knowing that my friend has dilligent parents with a high regard for education. Problem solved, right?

Yikes.

Mom comes in today to apologize for her daughter... and then proceeds to rip my friend a new asshole in front of the whole class. At this point, I'm still cool with the whole situation. While it is embarrassing to be reamed out in front of your friends, I also think that sometimes you need to feel bad about your choices. That might be mean, but hey, I'm honest. Among other things.

But then, mom tells me to not worry, because this will never happen again. She is going to teach her daughter a lesson by SHAVING HER HEAD over the weekend.

What?

Mom then stormed out of the cafeteria and my friend was left sobbing. Now normally, tears don't do much for me, but this time I really felt sorry for her.

Is she really going to get her head shaved?
Is that OK?
Should I do something?
Where do you draw the line with that one??

If she comes in with a shaved head on Monday, I might puke.

This feels darker than most of my posts....sorry....just not sure what to do with this one.

Intense.