June 29th 2007

June 29th 2007

Okay, we had a meeting with the school yesterday. But not before she came home with a busted phone. Said she got her bus pass stuck between the slidey parts, and it broke as she got it out. Even said a teacher took a pair of scissors to the phone, to prise it open as it was then stuck closed. First of all, a teacher wouldn’t do that. If I were so minded, I’d be there, with a bill, as she would be responsible for breaking it. I didn’t think to say that, only thought of it this morning.

Anyway, a little later, Tim, her big brother, took me aside, and said Harriet and her friends were smashing it about on the bus. First thing she said when she got in, was, “My friends said I can get a new phone, because the spring’s broken or something.”

First of all, it costs us £30, even though we’ve insurance. Second of all, it’s been obviously destroyed. They won’t see it as a mechanical fault. That aside, I’m really cross, that she seemingly doesn’t give a shit about the nice things we try to supply her with. We can’t afford the money right now, so she’ll get an ancient handset, when we decide she’s worked off the money.

This morning, I asked for the teacher’s name, funnily enough she couldn’t remember.

Yesterday, at the school, my husband and I were told about her deteriorating behaviour. How she’s erratic, and swinging from real manic highs, to depressed and crying. Her ‘friends’ are a bunch of rough kids, who skip school and steal and have zero respect for their parents. They also alternately like and loathe her, with little explanation as to why.

I suspect they keep her around as a ‘toy’; she’ll do whatever they say. Harri says she hasn’t got any other friends, and who wants to be alone.

Anyway, I came away with the impression that the school were fairly worried about her up and down moods, and a sudden decline in her schoolwork. I figured they didn’t go into detail, as she was sat with us. Later, we stopped by the supermarket to get dinner, and I remarked on the meeting. My husband saw it as a ‘she’s falling in with a bad crowd’ discussion. Said I was looking to make her be ill. I almost started crying, right there in Sainsbury’s. I don’t want her to be ill, I want her to stop lying compulsively, I want her to stop talking loudly in the garden, laughing wildly to herself.

Got angry with him. I feel like he’s in constant denial. He’s feeling like I what – am wishing her ill?

Asked the school to write a list of their worries, for the appointment with the psychologist that’s in a fortnight. Need to start my own list, something I dread thinking about.