Hello, My Name is Bonnie, and I'm a Yes Girl

I don't know how to say no to anyone, ever.  I'm very nice.  I'm very agreeable.  Need something done?  Ask me to do it, I'm available.  Need to change a meeting time?  No problem.  Need a volunteer for something?  I'm your woman.

What brought all this on, you ask?  Well it's the school.  The boys qualify for ESY (extended school year) and I was surprised to find that summer school is only for 1 hour, 3 days a week, for the month of July.  Geez.  Why even bother to bus them over there?  It hardly seems worth the cost and effort.  What's more, apparently and unbelieveably, I agreed to this, or so they tell me.  I have no memory of this conversation, nor can I find documentation about it.

Anyway they were going to attend school from 8 to 9 AM (so, not only is it just for an hour, but I was going to have to wake them up especially early and get them ready to go early, so they could be back and still have the entire day left to entertain them.  Yay.).  This week the district's special education boss lady called me and said she has scheduling problems, because there are too few teachers this summer session, and could the boys go to school from 11:30 to 12:30, instead? 

Then arriving home on the bus probably around 1, except for Wednesdays when they have speech therapy after school and would stay an extra 20 minutes or so, getting home around 1:15 or later - just on Wednesdays?

And this is where I became the Yes Girl.  Because even though our ABA therapy begins every afternoon at 12, I decided it wouldn't be a big deal to just shuffle around the schedule and start therapy at, oh, 1:30 instead, but only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then on Wednesdays they'd need to wait to start till probably 1:45, and of course on Mondays and Fridays they could go ahead and start right at 12.

Yeah.  Great idea for a couple of kids for whom routine is like the most important thing in the world.

Oh for crap's sake, why did I say yes to that?

So I womanned up and called her back this morning, and appologized up and down and back and forth and inside and outside and upside down for causing her more scheduling issues, but the problem was that her changes had caused me some scheduling issues.  And she understood, and was really nice, and said she'd take a look and see what she could do, and call me back.

Then she called back a half hour later, saying they could go to school from 9 to 10, except on Wednesdays when it'll be 9 to 10:30.  I am awash in relief.  This is perfect for me.  I love that schedule.

But I bet she hates me now.  She's bad-mouthing me right now to the rest of the special needs staff.   She probably got out her red Sharpie and is drawing unhappy faces all over my kids' files.

Wait, maybe it's not all that unbelievable that I agreed kindly to a 1-hour long school day.

I need some kind of 12-step program.