Today is Tuesday, September 20th, and although it is my Day 29, it is only the 26th day of school. And it has taken this long to get my first complaint of the year from my Frequent Flyer Parent!

Every teacher has one! That one parent that doesn’t seem to realize that there are other students in their child’s class. The parent that thinks the teacher actually lives at the school, anxiously awaiting their next email.

The problem I face is that I don’t get parents for just one school year like so many of my blessed colleagues! I get them for 2, 3, sometimes 4 years!! 4 YEARS of the same frequent flyer parent!!!!!!!! And mine is a doozie!

My frequent flyer parent frequent rapid fires off many emails in short periods of time, expecting an immediate response to all of them. And they aren’t short question emails either. This parent sends off emails that, if I printed them, would take up multiple pieces of paper.

Today’s complaint required me to be called into the principal’s office! Now, being called into the principal’s office use to scare me. I have a fast pass there now, so it no longer holds the dread that it once did. And what was my major transgression?? I did not answer an email fast enough! OH NO!!!! Really?

I am contractually obligated to answer parent correspondence within 48 hours, weekends and non-school days do not count. So when you email me after school hours on a Friday afternoon, I have until Tuesday afternoon to answer you. When you email me for information that I have shared with you many times, and you feel the need to quote your child’s IEP in the email,  I am going to take those 48 hours. Well, maybe I’ll be kind, and answer it in 46 hours. Like I did today. And it did not take tattling on me to my admin to get me to answer the email.

So tonight I am rewarding myself for having a functioning filter and deleting all the initial snarky things I typed in my email back to my Frequent Flyer Parent. I did feel better for typing them, but I do acknowledge that no good could actually come from saying them to this parent. So my reward is I am taking the night off from cutting, laminating, prepping, lesson planning, even pinteresting.

Today, Day 29, I am actually not working past my contractual hours. I clocked out at 4 and I will not be clocking back in until tomorrow morning! It’s Wine Time!