Parenting a Pre-teen

Today my son's teacher requested a conference.  She said she was requesting the conference on behalf of all of my son's teachers.  Last week, my son brought home a progress report that showed he was not passing social studies.  I emailed the teacher and she replied that his behavior had been disrespectful and he was missing several assignments.  She copied several other people on the email, some of which I had never heard of.  I spoke with my son who promised to mend his ways, and the report from his teacher was good, but then he apparently made some crude jokes a few days later, and I received the request mentioned above.  This time there were about 10 other people copied on the email.  I know my son.  He is struggling to find the line between who we are raising him to be and who it is that makes his friends laugh and helps him find peer acceptance.  He is not very wise in this department.  I am having trouble keeping up with his newly flowing hormones, but now I am also finding myself unable to keep up with his teacher who seems to be going full tilt into labeling him a problem student.  So I find myself on the defensive; a mama bear protecting her cub.  I'm a bit at a loss as to how to proceed.  I'm sure my son is far from being a model student, but I also think this teacher is overreacting and blowing it out of proportion.  

First Days at the New Gym

I woke up early Saturday morning, took my bagful of hope, and proceeded to the fitness center for my first ever Zumba class.  My last experience with this fitness chain had taught me to ask for towels at the front desk, however it seems things work differently in the new building.  No towels, unless I wanted to purchase one, so no "shower & walk out feeling stunning" for me.  You want to arrive a little early for Zumba.  If you come in even a few minutes late, it is really hard to find a spot because the lines of dancing people make crossing the room a bit like a game of Frogger.  And it is nearly impossible to learn the combinations at full speed, so if you are a few minutes late, just wait for the next song before you cut in.  Nevertheless, Zumba was fun, except for the part where I thought I might pass out, and except for the woman than came in and stood directly in front of me so that I couldn't see and couldn't move over without doing the same thing to the people behind me.  Also, I forgot to bring a water bottle.

Day two with towel and a new water bottle.  I took a smaller gym bag since I wasn't planning to do a full make-ready after my workout.  I had a plan for an on-my-own workout for Sunday afternoon, since there are no classes running at that time.  I headed to the elliptical machine.  I have used one before, in another time and another place, but this one was fancy.  It took me about 10 minutes to set up my iPhone with the new "Couch to 5k" app I had downloaded.  Then another 5 minutes to figure out how to make my feet move the right way on that crazy machine.  Finally, I was in business.  I am still not sure how to really run on it.  I kept taking too long of a stride and bumping the front of the machine.  I used my arms to help me stay withing a shorter stride length on the running intervals, and that worked pretty well.  Then, since I left my iPhone armband in the big bag, I knocked the phone (and my app) to the floor when I reached for my water bottle.  Then once again for no apparent reason.  I learned to use the rowing machine also, but I had to stick my iPhone in my waistband for that one.  Next, I got into a swimsuit and tried the sauna - no problems there.  After that I needed to shower off, but discovered that there is really no way to tell whether or not a shower is occupied.  They all looked the same, and I didn't hear anyone in any of them.  My apologies to the nice lady I inadvertently ogled before I realized that you just have to knock and listen closely to find out if a shower is vacant.  I decided to drape my towel of the door of the shower I was using to avoid creating any unpleasant circumstance for the person who might be looking for a shower while I was so employed.

I guess that about sums it up.  Towels, armband, water bottle, elliptical, showers.  Oh, and the scale in the ladies locker room is about a half pound off balance - to the heavy side.