First I would like to thank everyone who responded to my question on Friday re: a mother who phoned me concerned that my LD daughter was slowing down her gifted child in a group project.
My first response was of guilt….and then YOU set me straight with your wisdom, experiences and advice! MANY THANKS for giving me the confidence to believe in my child’s abilities!
And you know what? You all were right!. This mother is unbelievable!!! I thought you might be interested in hearing what happened.
On Sunday my daughter Ellen and her daughter Tina were to get together to write up the results of their science project. Both girls also, had a one minute French oral presentation due on Monday. So they were to do that first, alone, then meet here at 2:30 to work on the science project.
Tina called at 2:30 she needed another hour. Her mom called again at 3:45, she needed another hour. I drove over to Tina’s house to pick up the rough notes so Ellen could get started on writing up the science project. 6:00 still no Tina. Ellen was done with the written part (and she did an excellent job I might add) but wanted to wait for Tina to do some graphs on the computer. 6:30 Ellen calls Tina, she’s finally done her French, she will be right over in 2 minutes! 45 minutes later, at 7:15 she came, they did their graphs and were done by nine. If Ellen had not written up the results by herself that afternoon, they would have been up till mignight!
My Ellen did 80% of the work on this project. I wonder if this mom would agree….I doubt it. Some people you just can not reason with. I feel like calling up that other mother and saying something but think it is best to leave it alone and keep out of the kids lives. I must show restraint.
Thanks again every one!
Re: Group project update
Good idea, for all I know, Tina could have come home and said she wrote it!
Re: Group project update
Hmmm. That triggered a thought. Maybe the original problem started because the mother asked Tina if her science project was done yet, and Tina felt defensive and used Ellen as her excuse when she had to say no.
Your original post made me just want to rearrange that woman, but who knows what really went on in that household.
So glad to hear your daughter was the one that pulled the team through. What a feather in her cap!
Re: Group project update
Or the mother assumed it couldn’t possibly be her darling Tina that was the problem!!!
Re: Group project update
First, Helen made me howl with laughter just thinking about the Ms. Manners approach. I’m so glad that things ended up with your daughter feeling a little more competent—that is where true self esteem is developed.
You could do a Miss Manners.
Next time you see her smile nicely and say, “I’m so sorry that Tina didn’t didn’t get a change to help on the report for the group project. By the time she came over Ellen had it done. They did though get a chance to do the graphs together. Group projects can be such a trial can’t they.”
Helen