When my son was in 4th grade he was doing really well in his “regular” class, so without my knowledge, he was switched to a different “better” class.

It was at a time when the bullshit school system was trying to work out some bullshit class system that ultimately failed and they switched to another way of doing things.

My son was probably one of the examples of why it was a failure.

From their viewpoint, it would be because once he was in the “better” class, his grades went down and that looks bad for them.

From my viewpoint, it was a disastrous failure because my son went from being a happy kid who loved school, to staying home once because he was having a panic attack and couldn’t move off the couch.

When it didn’t get any better, I contacted his teacher (Who I loved, btw. The teachers don’t make the rules, it’s the board of education and the fucking idiotic government. At the time, I believe it was Betsy DeVos sticking her nose into education when she never taught a day in her life.) His teacher replied, letting me know that she fully supported my decision and they were about to contact me to suggest the same.

Stop with the challenges! IF IT AIN’T BROKE DON’T FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!! If someone is happy and thriving, leave it alone!!!!

After that, PJ and I chose to raise our children with that mindset. And being that neither one of us gives a flying fuck about keeping up with the Joneses, it’s worked well.

When parents brag about their kids’ academia, they might mistake the look on my face for jealousy, but trust me, it’s 100% pure boredom.

Of course I’m going to hang up awards on the bulletin board and boast about them on social media – I’m proud of their efforts and I am human!

It’s when it neverrrr stoppppsss that I glaze over and start playing that scene from Reservoir Dogs in my head. I’d rather watch Mr. Blonde cut off a cop’s ear than have to remove my own ears so I don’t have to listen anymore.

Plus, Stuck in the Middle with You by Stealers Wheel is playing during that scene. Apropos because I’m usually stuck in the middle of 2 parents trying to one-up each other over how smart their kids are.

But back to my reasoning for not pushing my kids.

I would rather them have average grades and enjoy life than have the stress of fucking dumb school on them.

I KNOW people think this stance is very stupid. I do not care.

I went to community college after school because I couldn’t cut the apron strings from my mommy. Then I transferred for my bachelors. The college I went to was fine, middle of the road. I got a degree in Marketing. I’ve been working in the field ever since. PJ was in the same boat. He ended up doing something completely opposite from the degree he earned. We’re both fine. We are happy. We have raised happy, well-adjusted kids. They do fine in school. They have pursued interests outside of the typical “you need to do this to be a well-rounded American kid.” I want to reiterate one more time that they are HAPPY. It’s all I ever wanted for them – to not be a leach on society and to be HAPPY.

Here’s the kicker. My son decided to push himself and elected to take honors classes this year. Guess what? It’s been a bad week. He’s not happy. He’s been cranky. He’s not getting enough sleep because of all the work.

And why? So he can get an honors diploma or whatever you get? So he can go to a big name college where he’ll have even more stress? To attain a big job for even more… you guessed it… STRESS? And probably a bigger loan payment as well.

I said he could drop the honors classes if he wanted to but he said it’s too far into the school year.

So every night I pray for him. Not for straight A’s but that he gets through this bullshit fairly unscathed.

I know many of you reading this think I’m just too soft on my kids.

Guess whatttt????…. I don’t careee….

My way of parenting has made this a loving home with happy kids. And school is just fucking it all up! I HATE SCHOOL!!!!