Are you good at “sizing” people up?

 

I am not sure about you, but I kinda have this sixth sense about people’s personality from the moment I meet them.  This isn’t me “judging a book by its cover, but something a little deeper.  I will go out on a limb and say 98% of the time my initial assessment of someone is pretty much right on.

Before I go on with this story, I am just letting you know, I have changed the titles and names of the people involved so I don’t cause too many problems.

Here is the situation

I think I have mentioned, a teacher comes to our house 4 days a week for an hour and 15 minutes and this is considered Tiara’s school day.  This program is through the school district and because Tiara is health impaired they provide her this service.  Last year we had a really great teacher who taught Tiara more than she had learned in her entire life.  I think it was because the teacher was really interactive and one on one really works well for TT.  Anyways, this teacher agreed to come back this year but only for half time, so the district needed to find someone for the other 2 days. 

Most all of these teachers work full time in a special education classroom all day and then come over after work to tutor TT.  The teachers earn extra money doing this but it can be really exhausting on top of all the crazy paperwork they are constantly required to complete, so sharing the job is a great idea.

About a month ago I was over at the high school meeting one of Tiara’s new therapist’s when she told me the teacher who was planning on working with TT the other two days was on campus and wanted to meet Tiara.  Sounds good.  “Suzy” showed up within minutes and seemed really nice, but I was getting this weird vibe from her.  After we left I kept trying to figure out what was bothering me about her and I decided I thought she may be one of those people who talks a big game about all the great things they are going to do but they never really follow through.  I was a little stumped, which was unusual for me but I decided to wait and see how it went before I made any judgements.  A few weeks later she started working at the house and the first time she worked with Tiara it was awesome. 

Ok, Tiffani, you were so wrong, this lady is great.  She was playing music, dancing, and painting nails with Tiara.  She told Tiara all the wonderful things she was planning to do with her and Tiara was over the moon excited.  The second day she came to our house she even stayed 1 hour longer than she was supposed too and I know she wasn’t getting paid for the extra time.  I was feeling like we struck gold with this teacher and decided my initial assessment of her was completely wrong.  Tiara would be learning lots of new stuff and having tons of fun between the 2 teachers, this was going to be great.

The next week she called in sick for both her days.  No biggie, everyone gets sick and I never even thought twice about it.  The week after, I was waiting for her to show up and when she was 20 minutes late, I finally called her on her cell phone.  “Oh, sorry I am running a little late but I will be there in 15 minutes.”  I then told her “well I have to leave to pick up Trinity from school, so come over in half an hour.”  She said, “Ok that’s perfect.”

Funny enough she didn’t show up until 3:30 which was 45 minutes later and when she arrived she asked if I had been planning on leaving her alone with Tiara while I went to pick up Trinity.  I said “Yes, are you Ok with that?”  Her response, “absolutely not, I cannot have you leaving while I am here.  It is against the rules and a liability issue.” I was a little surprised and told her every teacher in the past had been ok with it, but if she didn’t feel comfortable with me breaking that rule, I totally understand.  I am a rule follower myself and I get it. I then said we would need to push back the time so I could pick up Trin before she worked with Tiara.  Easy enough!

I know it is against the district policy for me to leave the teacher alone at home with Tiara while I run to pick up Trinity BUT I have been doing it for a year.  Trinity’s school is 1.5 miles from my house and if she has volleyball practice after school, I have to leave and grab her, but I am back in 10 minutes.  Every teacher who has ever worked in our home has always been fine with it even though it is against the rules. 

All the teachers know I would never put Tiara’s safety in jeopardy and if I didn’t think they could handle it I would never do it.  Plus they all work with kids who have seizures, they all have CPR certification and I am leaving for 10 minutes and they all know how to dial 911.  But I am wrong in breaking the rules so if they don’t want me to leave, I won’t. Simple.

Suzy seemed a little perturbed with me, but she had tons of fun with TT and I thought the situation was resolved.  At the end of the session she said “oh, did I tell you I won’t be here next week?” ” Humm, no you didn’t,” I replied.  “Oh, I am so sorry, I am a chaperone for a school trip next week.  Wow, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you!” 

Ok, whatever, she had a previous commitment and we would see her the week after.  She had started this big project with Tiara where she drew out the shape of her  body on a huge piece of paper and they were going to add the face, the clothes, the hair, etc and Tiara was super excited because Suzy kept talking about how much fun it was going to be.  How they were going to do yoga to music, work on colors by painting her nails, decorate the paper body, blah, blah, blah. 

Funny enough the 3 times she taught Tiara, she kept calling me over to the table to tell me things about Tiara as if I didn’t know Tiara was “a rocker, knew her colors and would sit while you painted her nails.”  Every time she did this it seemed weird, but I thought she was just excited as she discovered all the different things Tiara liked and was good at.  I spend 24 hours a day with Tiara, so I pretty much know everything about her, so once again this woman was throwing me some weird signals, but again, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

The next day, Lou was off and he stayed home with Suzy while I picked up Trinity and drove her to the doctor’s.  While driving, I received a call from a school administrator.  She was calling to let me know 2 things.  One,  I am not allowed to leave Tiara alone with the teachers as it is in violation of district policy and two, Suzy was not coming back as she found a full time assignment. WHAT THE F***?

I was instantly so pissed I had to use every bit of strength in my body not to yell at the nice administrator who has always been very accommodating and helpful to our family.  Are you kidding me?  She tattled on me and dumped my kid after making her all these promises.  What a jerk!  Apparently she was leaving because she received a full time assignment which meant more money.  She had mentioned the first time I met her she may be taking on another full time assignment but since she started a few weeks after our first meeting and she agreed to co-teach, I assumed she wasn’t still planning on taking the full time position.  Clearly, I was super wrong, again.

Hello lady, if you were planning on leaving after 3 lessons, why even start with my kid?  I spent so much time filling her in on Tiara’s history and how she best learned so Suzy could figure out the best methods for teaching Tiara and now she bailed.  Really?  This happened last Thursday and I am still livid, every time I think about it.

Apparently my initial impression of her was right after all.  She was all talk and no action.  Unfortunately Tiara is the one who will suffer from inability to complete what she started.

FYI, I apologized to the other teacher via text that night, since I knew she had probably gotten reprimanded for letting me leave during the school lesson.  I was grateful when she said it wasn’t a big deal and she would see us on Monday.  At least she wasn’t quitting too.

Have a great Tuesday!

 

xoxo tiffani

you can now download my blog onto your Kindle, yay!!