What I learned at Curriculum night

Tonight was Brandon's curriculum night at the high school. It's where I go and meet all his teachers and find out if there is anything special I need to know about his classes. There are only a handful of parents that come to these things, but I, being mother of the year needing all the help with Brandon I can get, am faithful to them. I figure if the teachers have something they want to tell me (or are being forced to) I should go listen.

Brandon is a character. He's really funny and while he is definitely smart he is much more interested in making people laugh than in his academics. As a result he often gets less than stellar feedback from his teachers. He occasionally gets a teacher that really connects with his wry sense of humor but mostly they are just irritated with his antics and general academic apathy.

And I admit I have been known to cringe a bit when sharing which child is mine. I know. I should get a whole slew of WMPs just for admitting that.

Well today, I brought Ben with me to curriculum night. He loves visiting the older kids schools and I figured Brandon might get some points for having such such a cute little brother. The last class we went to was World History and I had already received a distinctly non-positive vibe from the rest of Brandon's teachers. His History teacher was a fresh faced eager kid and I did my best not to cringe at all as I introduced myself and explained what student I belonged to. The teacher responded with "Oh, I love having Brandon in my class. He is such a smart young man and he really adds a lot to our class!"

And I, being truly awful, responded by bursting out in incredulous doubt,

"Brandon Abcdefg???? (insert appropriate last name here.)

And when the teacher looked back at me surprised and confirmed it.

I said "Seriously?"

And Ben said:

"Seriouswy?"

Oh yes. Not only was I unable to believe that anyone but me would actually enjoy being around my teenager, I have taught that sentiment to my three year old son. I spent the rest of the meeting looking for a hole. One big enough to crawl into.