Teaching can be a blessing, and a curse.
The great thing about my job is that I get to work with young people.
The worst thing about my job is that I get to work with young people.
Today it snowed (actually it still is) here in R'dam, which is a strange sight here in March. The kids all think that its really cool since it doesn't snow here much and love to go play in it. My students bugged me to go out and play in the snow but I was Scrooge and said no. I knew that there would be plenty of it for them to play in when they got home. And boy is there enough for them to play with out there.
I got home and cooked dinner, watching the snow fall outside and praying for enough that we would have a snow day tomorrow (unlikely but I can hope). I sat down to eat my food and heard the not-so-gentle thumping of snow balls on my house. Its to be expected I guess, I am a teacher and juveniles do so enjoy hurling things at their teachers' houses. So I ignored the first volley since its usually what kids are looking for - attention. I didn't even flinch as I ate my dinner and watched TV.
Then came the second volley; ignored. Third, ignored. Hey, I am in my house and a few snowballs aren't doing any damage. As long as they don't break a window... The intermittant barrage continued for about 3 hours, waking me up from my gentle slumber on the sofa incurred while watching 'Mythbusters' (great show by the way). So when the last volley hit at around 9:15, I had decided that I had had enough. I got up off the sofa and headed upstairs so that I could identify the perps when I noticed that a large amount of snow had been piled on my front door. A front door that opens in. In other words, all of that snow is going to fall in when I open the door next. How happy that is going to make me.
So my kids can be a great source of joy and also a royal pain in the ass. I guess they are no different than if they were my own children. But at least I could beat my own for doing annoying and stupid shit like this. Forgive my language but I really dislike it when my privacy is disturbed in my own house by juvenile pranks like this. I can deal with this at school - its to almost be expected to some point. But my home is my castle, leave me alone while I'm in it.
4 comments:
You have more patience than I do. I would have thrown the snow back at them. I hope you bust them tomorrow!
Julie
Oh, my. I agree with Julie: you have WAY more patience than I have! I like the phrase you use: "my home is my castle". I'm always using the phrase "my home is my haven", because it IS! Right now I live in an apt. building that houses many expats, including colleagues, students, and parents. I often put a "do not disturb" sign on my door, just because I want some peace. As for the snow balls: I would have been tempted to retaliate with a bee-bee gun. Hope you got a snowday, Expat Nomad
http://shamash.typepad.com/shamash
I think that you handled it well. It's one of those no-win situations. If you had reacted, it would have probably caused an escalation of the type/frequency of "pranks."
It's like the Blog World. I think that the worst thing that we can do to a Troll is to feed it.
On the other hand, if you could have somehow identified the perps (without a public scene) and called the parents in for a conference, that might have been productive.
You just never know.
I took a small amount of action. I wrote a letter to each and every family asking them to have a chat with their kid to respect my privacy at home and leave me alone. I had a kid at my door within minutes apologizing for his actions.
And then on Friday night the neighborhood kids (Dutch and Expat) had a snowball fight (again) but this time they stopped by and invited me to come out and play. WTF? Didn't I just send a letter home THAT day explaining I wanted to be left alone? NO KIDS KNOCKING ON MY DOOR?!?!? Here's the best part - the kid who rang the doorbell, his mom teaches at my school...
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