No one ever promised

that being a parent was going to be easy. Still, I kind of think it is snobbish for someone not to warn me.

You see, I have three very different daughters. Each one has her own strengths and weaknesses. Each one is growing into a woman that I both admire and enjoy.

Today I had the joy of sitting down with a principal and the gifted teacher of my youngest. I am being very tongue and cheek when I say 'joy'. The meeting was called as they felt perhaps my daughter was not living up to being 'gifted'. Let me explain gifted.

In Pennsylvania, to be gifted means you have been tested and been found to be exceptional. In my daughter's case, she has been found to have an iq that runs around 130. She should be sailing through school with easy A's. Yet she persists in getting C's in math.

This from a child who helps her 11th grade sister with her algebra II homework.

Not only this, it seems her gifted teacher wanted to point out that she did not find the assignment HE came up with as interesting. He wanted her to be all thrilled about an aquarium and to maintain the school's and in turn, to learn the wherewithall of aquarium management. Sound cool? well it would, if the fish didn't keep dying. Through no fault of my daughter I might add... they used chlorinated water in filling the tank. I thought the teacher was supposed to be smarter than the student. But I digress.

It was all in all a shitty day. The meeting dragged an hour with nothing solved, and she has been mopey and tearful all night.