Helicopter Mom Comes In For A Landing

Micah's school sends home the standard folder each day with finished seat work, art projects, and such like in it. They also have a How Did I Do page where they let me know (shockingly enough) how he did that day. If they need to communicate with me there is a note section on the back, and I'm encouraged to ask questions there as well.

The other day there was a note on the back of the page. This note said, "Do you have cats?"

I scratched my head over this. Why would they need to know that? I decided that it must be one of two things.

1. They had something cat-related that they wanted to donate our way.
2. The sheer amounts of dog hair that Micah must be taking to school wasn't being panned off as Show-N-Tell.

So I wrote an answer that said, "No, we just have dogs. Why? Is Micah bringing too much hair to school? Sorry."

As I was tucking it all back into his bookbag, I commented to my husband how weird that was. Not bad weird, not good weird, just that's kinda weird weird.

The next day I took a minute to chat with Micah's aide when I was at school. She apologized almost immediately over possibly offending me with the Do You Have Cats question. Since it takes a lot to offend me, I reassured her that all was good. Apparently she felt the need to divulge. Here's the scoop:

There is a mom in the class that has the label of being One of Those Moms. (You know the type.) She says exactly what she thinks, and does not hesitate to tell you when even the tiniest little thing is amiss. Her daughter has special needs (like every kid in the class, hello?) and because of this she's become The Helicopter Mom Extraordinnaire. This does nothing to endear her to the staff, and when there are more staff in the class than students, that's not a wise choice to be making.

Helicopter Mom is also the fun one that will not allow her child out of her sight. Even in school. She chooses to send her daughter only on certain days, and sits in the class with her on those days. Gotta love the IEP that makes schools comply with things like this.

So Helicopter Mom noticed that Micah had a dog hair on his hat. This sent Helicopter Mom into a tizzy of immense proportions because her Little Precious is allergic to cats, and it's no wonder that Little Precious has been rubbing her eyes* lately, and Oh.My.Word. what are you going to do about it?! To which the staff responded by asking each kid in the class if they had cats. Since Micah can't talk, they sent a note home. The teachers felt about a half inch tall over this and I felt bad that they were in that position for them. And as far as I know, that's the end of the story. But that's only as far as I know.

(*Let it be noted that not even one of the dozen staff workers in the class ever noticed Little Precious rubbing her eyes.)

It's not the end of what I think of Helicopter Mom, though. As a mother myself, and a mother of a child with special needs even, I understand completely that you do what you have to when it comes to your child. But I also understand that the rest of the world has rights, too. If Little Precious is allergic to cats to such a degree that it compromises her health, I'd think keeping her home would be the most safe option. And if it's not such a bad allergy that it compromises her health, then you have to know that people in the real world own cats and most likely, at some point, Little Precious will come into contact with them. What does she expect of the class? That all cat owners become suddenly cat-less? Yeh, because that's a reasonable expectation.

I am not a cat person myself, but for a brief moment there I was tempted to go adopt a litter of kittens. I would have Micah take them to school for Show-N-Tell. I wonder what days Helicopter Mom is there with the poor child that she's scarring for life? I'd ask her to hold the basket.