Childhood Observation

I am hoping that you can help me. My daughter Aberdeen is in your class. Her father and I are divorced. She goes to her dads on Thursdays till 8pm and on 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends of every month. I was raised with the mind set that school was not important. I believed that I couldn’t do well but it didn’t matter. The standards my parents set for my brother was high (A’s) and their standard for me was to just pass (D’s and C’s when D’s were eliminated). I was told I would never be as good as him and that was ok. My parents did not care if I did not do my homework unless a teacher contacted them about it. Then it was screaming and yelling to do the work. I bet you are wondering why I am even mentioning this because its suppose to be about Aberdeen.

I set Aberdeens standards for school so low because I only cared if she passed. I thought at that time it was the right thing. I would make her do her homework but I never offered any support except to yell at her or lecture her. If she needed help or didn’t understand something, I was not very understanding about it. I told her she was the one in class all day, she should know.

In 2012, her father and I got a divorce. I have been a stay at home mom my entire life. I met her father right after I turned 19 (jan 2000) and we were together ever since then. I suddenly found myself unskilled and suited for adult life alone. I depended on someone my entire life to provide and support me. I did not think I could do it alone. For the first few years I didn’t do it alone. I lived with my parents. It was then that I learned just how important education is. I felt like I couldn’t do college because I did horrible in high school. My GPA was a 2.4. I slowly started changing the way I saw things. Took a hard look at my parenting skills. I realized that I had done so many things wrong. That school is very important no matter what you want to do in life. I began to implement changes at