Don't Blame Me!!

hahahaha ... you sure have a good memory about our previous conversations.

Since, you're an academic, you're blaming yourself.

Well, I only said "a lot" of threads, not all of them.

I really kind of had in mind the threads that took the place of the "most burning question" threads from a couple years back.

The ones that are more like "what is your biggest problem with . . ."

or "the death of . . ."

or the ones about " what is your best . . ."

those last ones are getting so most of the good ideas are already used up, so you start seeing a bunch of secondary things like "what is your best mouse pad cleaning cloth - give your opinion now"

I just figure that someone has launched a new program somewhere about telling people to start asking questions in forums to find out what products to create.

And sometimes there is something in their sig file, and sometimes there is nothing at all in their sig file, just a big blank space where it looks like something could go.

Those kind of questions kind of put me in mind of some experience from my past. I had a guy working for me once who was a 6th grade teacher. His kids were not doing so well with their writing grades, so it was my job to help him help his kids learn to write better.

So I asked him why he thought his kids didn't write so well. There were a ot of things he could have said, like the majority of his students were learning English as their second or even third language. That the kids really needed remediation in their basic skills or that there needed to be more time during the day for critiquing their writing.

But what he told me was, it was their pencils. More specifically the erasers on their pencils. The pencils were cheap and the erasers were plastic instead of rubber, so when they kids made mistakes, they often tore their paper with the erasers and became so discouraged they just quit writing.

And he was dead serious when he told me this.

I see threads and question in forums that remind of things like that.

Not a majority of threads by any means. Sometimes they are questions from people who really don't know what they are asking, but they are stuck and don't know where to begin. And thank goodness they ask questions because it is usually the case that a whole bunch of other people have the same question. I know I have been in tht situation a whole lot of times.

But sometimes, I just look at some of these threads and I just wonder why if they really had that question, why they just didn't go search for it somewhere else and get their issue fixed immediately.

But mostly, I think everybody has a right (within the structure of the forum anyway) to ask questions for any purpose they want. And my opininion don't make no never-mind nohow anyway. But its just nice to talk about stuff sometimes.

Being a parent is fun.

We used to have a Jack Russell Terrier that lived in the house with us.

He was the kids favorite buddy.

Now and again, one or both of the older boys would do something wrong, then they would both deny their participation in the thing that was done.

I would get so frustrated trying to get them to tell me the truth.

One day it hit me.

I asked for them to fess up about five times, and I was livid that someone was continuing to lie, because I knew for a fact that one of them had done it.

So I stopped, then turned to the dog and started hollering at the dog for having gotten the chips off the counter, the chip dip out of the fridge, spilling the chips on the floor at tramping through them, then smearing chip dip all over the couch.

I just stood there and sternly spoke to the dog about his bad behavior, while wagging my finger at him, and I kept telling the dog how I would not tolerate that kind of behavior from him any more!!

The dog just sat there tilting his head to one side, looking at me, with confusion in his eyes.

I continued to speak to the dog in my most stern voice...

And then it happened...

The boys started defending the dog...

I turned to them and told them to shush when I was getting on the dog, because as I told them, since they did not do anything, the dog was the only one left in the house who could have done it.

They attempted a second defense of the dog.

I told them to be quiet, and continued disciplining the dog verbally.

Then they broke...

The younger came and pulled my arm... And then said, "Dad, it was me. I did it."

Then the older boy said, "It was me too."

The dog was always useful like that.

We don't have the dog anymore.

Now the cat gets in trouble for things those two older boys do.

It works miracles every time!!

If your kids are young enough, you might try it out some time...


.