Try So Hard to Play for Her “Audience”

We all, on the whole, care about what others think of us, and sometimes do things because we know that others will see what we are doing.
Ricki, in this respect, is no different from the rest of us. She wants people to approve of her, especially if they are important people in her life (like her classmates and teacher).
Thus Ricki will often go to great trouble in the evening to prepare her 10:00 snack for the next school day. Invariably, this will consist of salad, fruit, and a yogurt. Ricki will banter about how healthy the food is, and how her classmates will approve. However the next morning she will invariably pack into her school bag (in addition to the “health snack”) a chocolate-spread sandwich. Then, at day’s end, the fruit and salads will be returned, in a rather inedible state. Thus it seems that for Ricki, like for many of us, the emotional side wins out over common sense in the end. Apparently she can kid herself about her “healthy” snack, and satisfy her stomach all at once……

A Stay-at-Home-Day

This morning Ricki’s aid called in to say that her child was sick and she would not be coming to school. That means no school for Ricki. Never mind that she had a final in geography today, a vaccination (which I hope she can still get tomorrow), and other various things. Never mind that I had other plans for the morning than being a baby-sitter for Ricki. I DID tell her to look for alternate care of her child for tomorrow, in case the child would still be under the weather.
So later today I will have to call the geography teacher to ask if I can give her the exam (and if not, what?), and phone a classmate to see if there are any announcements. It could be that today is the last (unofficially) day of formal studies. Tomorrow they will probably start rehearsals for the play/graduation ceremony that should be about three weeks from now.
Earlier, Ricki was being a real pest, but now she seems to have calmed down and is listening to music. Maybe her belligerence was due to the change in schedule, but I suspect her change in mood has more to do with her CONCERTA (ADHD med) kicking in. Until it begins to work she can be a rather ornery creature. That is no excuse, of course (and I reprove her), but it is also a rather consistent state of affairs in the early morning