Retired Principal Tales

Taking One Day at a Time

Top Three Pet Peeves

Daily writing prompt
Name your top three pet peeves.

I could think of a lot of pet peeves, but I guess I can single out three or four. One. Texts. I try to give my texts a friendly tone, for instance, using more than one word for the initial text. For example, I texted that I had landed at the airport. My son replied, “ok,” and that was it. I replied back to him with this: “Hi Mom, I’m glad you landed safely. I can’t wait to see you!”. He then replied back, “You took the words right out of my mouth before I could text them.” At least that was more than one word.

The rest of my pet peeves are school-related. Parents who bashed teachers and me on social media really were a huge pet peeve. I called those parents the next day to ask if there was any clarification I could make about said subject for them. After awhile, word got around apparently, because I did not seem to have to make as many of those calls.

Another pet peeve of mine back in the day when I was working was the person that would come in and say “thirty second question” and it would turn into thirty or more minutes with a complaint or whatever the issue was that day. Often, this pushed the limited time for paperwork in the office to well after school hours. Coming home at six o’clock was pretty standard even though I was “done” at four o’clock, and I had arrived at six forty five or seven o’clock most days.

Lastly, there were the teachers who did not regard safety as an issue. Some would leave doors propped open during the day. I was trying to make a safe environment for all, and was being sabotaged by some of the very people I tried to protect. “Oh, I needed to carry in some boxes, and forgot to shut the door!” was often the reason for the doors being propped open. My anxiety was always escalated when I saw those doors open. I frequently toured the building in the mornings to make sure the doors were shut and locked. They got better at thinking about shutting them with MANY reminders from me.

Later…


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