So I am totally used to people who know me assuming the worst about me.  I can live with that.  I’ve made horrendously public mistakes and then I talk about them for like 10 years, so I get it when family and friends are slightly skeptical of my good sense, sound judgment and prudential behavior.

They won’t be fooled again!

(Haha, that’s what they think.  Suckers.  Just wait, when your back is turned, I’ll fuck my life up again!)

But, I wonder on what basis people I’ve had very limited interaction with jump to the conclusion that I am a spectacularly worthless human being?  Who told them?

I found out today that Bitch-Mom (um, maybe I shouldn’t call her that…) called my Headmaster to report that I had let her child go hungry at lunch after I was informed that her lunch was stolen.

WHAT!

That isn’t what happened at all.  Her daughter told me that her mom forgot to pack her a lunch, there wasn’t time to call the mom and have her bring the lunch, so I ran to the store and bought my student a lunch.  She ate, it was fine.  End of story as far as I was concerned.  But apparently not.  For some reason there is an entirely different version of this story and it involves me allowing my students to steal from each other and then forcing one of them to starve.

I swear, I am not a villain in a Dickens novel.  The absurdity of it just blows my mind.  I wrote up my version of events and passed it on to my Headmaster with the oh so professional “this is your problem now” attitude.

The communication between this parent and me has never been stellar, and in the past she has addressed issues with me that I decided to deal with in a way that didn’t meet her standards.  (She complained about something ridiculous, I didn’t give in, she got even angrier.  Lather, rinse, repeat every week or so.)  So in some way I understand that she just thinks I’m an idiot and wants to go over my head.  But how can she think that I am so wantonly cruel that I would let a child go hungry?  Really?

And yes, it bugs me more than it should simply for the fact that I went out of my way to make sure that she had a proper lunch when she had told me that there was mix up at home and she didn’t have anything to eat.  I put in my time and my money so that she would be fed and happy with no embarrassment to her and no hassle to her family. So now the whole thing being misunderstood and turned back on me as if I am some sort of cartoon character of a mean schoolteacher just irks the ever living fuck out of me.

But what really am I to do?  Someone let her in on the secret that I’m not as nice as I look.

(1 Year, 3 Months, 13 Days Sober)