Useless Blogging

There are myriad ways I’m a lousy father. I do my best, but I know I fall short. Providence has landed me in the arms of a great woman who is both able and willing to pick up my copious slack in that department.

One way I know I miss the mark is believing my older daughter. She never made it particularly easy with her penchant to exaggerate, just as I know that my fondness for teachers and a general belief in their absolute desire to do what’s best for the children in their care exceeds realistic levels. I kept telling Emma — and myself — that it couldn’t ever be as bad as she describes it. I don’t know what clicked, in her and in me, but something did, and I’m grateful.

To that end, today is my daughters’ last day at Middle River Baptist Child Development Center. I’ve watched this daycare:

• Let my five year old autistic daughter run a quarter mile home
• Lose my daughters’ things and try to blame them, changing their story no less than three times in the process
• Have its teachers set my older daughter up for ridicule and embarassment
• Send writeups home bearing witness to the bad behavior of my older daughter, only to learn that none of the people who signed as a witness actually saw my daughter do any of the things they described
• Break their OWN policy in informing the parents that ringworm was discovered in one of their kids, and not see an ounce of apology in the letter that finally did come home

There’s certainly more, ranging from ‘things that got on my nerves’ to ‘why are you a teacher again?’, but I feel that’s a decent bullet point list.

I’m sorry that I didn’t believe my daughter more the first time through, and I’m sorry that my inaction caused her grief. (And if you’re reading, MRBCDC, that is an apology. Not apologizing for how people feel, but rather apologizing for the actions that were in the wrong.) I’ll be working to make it better.