Hello. This is (fill in name), the social worker from (fill in name of school that their child attends). I'm calling because (fill in children's names) teachers each raised a concern about (again fill in children's names). Please give me a call. Thank you.
Be sure to make the message as cryptic as possible without giving any clue as to what said "concern" might be. Believe me, I speak from personal experience, this will leave the parent in an utterly complete state of panic and worry until they are able to find out what is going on.
Yep, that "utterly complete state of panic and worry" is what Rich and I were experiencing for a few hours last night. The phone rang during supper, but we ignored it because we tend to treat supper as sacred family time. But afterward, when we checked the message, that is what we heard. Of course, we immediately called her back, and of course, she had left for the day. As I'm sure you could imagine, every scary scenario possible was running through our minds. Looking back, I guess we shouldn't have been so upset, for if it had been some sort of real emergency or major problem, the social worker (which I didn't even know the school had up until this point) surely would have called earlier in the day.
Anyway, I immediately sent each of the boys' teachers an e-mail. I didn't really expect that either of them would check their work e-mail until this morning, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try. And I'm glad I did, because I got a call from Max's teacher two hours later. I could just tell how horrible she felt when I told her about the message we got. She couldn't believe that the social worker didn't just tell us what it was about instead of leaving us that extremely vague message.
So, what was it all about? She wanted to tell us that the boys were shy!!! Gee, ya think? We've only had that one figured out for several years now.
O.K., she also wanted to tell us about this program they have that is just for kids who are shy and have trouble speaking up, and offer this program to the boys if we agreed. So, while in the end, all was well, I think in the process she managed to take a few years off our lives.
*****
Totally unrelated:
Dewey has another great giveaway going on...this time boxes of holiday books. Head over here to find out how to win. (I'm not entering because I just won two fabulous boxes of books from Dewey during the read-a-thon, and there's certainly no call for being greedy, is there?)
15 comments:
LOLOL! Yep, that would be a total freak out message...mercy!
Oh my good gracious! Well, that's almost as bad as when the principal called me and said that I needed to be present when she, the social worker, and police officer questioned Jacob. Talk about taking years off your life!!
Glad it was nothing more than your kids being shy!
I had a similar message from the school nurse here last week! Of course, she called on FRIDAY and I didn't get the message until after school was closed, so I had to wait all weekend to hear something that wasn't all that big of a deal :P
That really does sound scary! You'd think that social workers would be aware of how alarming a vague message like that would be. I'm glad it wasn't anything serious!
I'm sure while it took a few years off your life it also added a lot of gray hairs, heart palpitations, a rise in blood pressure. Holly cow. I would have been a nervous wreck!!!
I glad in the scheme of things it wasn't anything that needed to cause you anxiety!
I would be calling the school and letting them know that leaving a message like that is a bit inappropriate to say the least.
take care,
Dawn
Oh my! I know how you feel, Debi! I'd be terrified too if I've received that message! But I'm glad everything's all right. Perhaps the social workers should be told not to alarm the parents unnecessarily... ;)
I can understand why that would freak you out. It's nice that they actually spoke to you about a program to help. I can't get anyone to call us about anything. It will be such a joy when my youngest leaves this school system, although it means he'll be away at college and I know I'll miss him.
Oh my! How can a social worker not know better than to leave that kind of message!?!?! Glad it was not a big deal! As if you didn't know your boys are shy!
Yep, that'll do it! What is wrong with that woman. A good social worker/counselor should know better than to do something like that. It's their job to make people's lives easier and LESS stressful. Sheesh...
Oh, and by the way..I tagged you!
Sheesh! Is the social worker not a mom herself you would know what a message like that would to do a parent? Good grief! Maybe she just lacks common sense? Well, at least it wasn't a big deal, but too bad you had that time to stress - not fun!
Oh my god, that phone call would have had me breaking into pharmacies to steal Valium! Sorry you had to go through such a thing. That social worker needs to brush up on her people skills. I'm glad that teacher called you back; you never would have been able to sleep that night!
I just got my books from Hachette, too, and I put the icky books from the political box on bookmooch even though I was scared Bookmooch users would think I was a fan of... well, the people some of those books were about. They were snapped up fast! Must be some real fans of icky political books on that site.
Glad to hear everything worked out--sometimes I think its better not to leave a message at all since they can be so misconstrued.
That is crazy, that had to have scared you! It is funny, when kids are quiet something is wrong & when they talk to much something is wrong. Hard to get a happy medium! I have one of each, so I find it frustrating.
I was shy though, that is nice they have a program for it I guess. Hope it works well! I came out a lot of my shyness when I had kids.
For a minute there, I thought they got our numbers mixed up! At least your problem is only that he's shy. ;)
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