What has my weekend therapy been this weekend? Online shopping. Usually this means that I look at unattainable things on my favorite sites like Anthropologie …I mean, who can resist the ridiculous detail that you can find in those clothes?? But, as I have mentioned, I am a public school school counselor, and let’s face it- we don’t go into this profession to get rich monetarily! So I like to add $500 worth of clothes and shoes (approximately two shirts and a pair of flats, no?) to my cart, only to slowly dwindle them down to almost nothing, and eventually receding like a toddler to erasing everything. But I’ve sure got one hell of a wish list on the puppy, I tell ya. My husband bought me a $50 gift card once, and my daughter joked me for waiting three months to find the perfect sale items. It’s how I roll, it’s my internal conflict; I loves me some expensive taste, but I’m cheap the way us 80’s kids were raised.
Such sad 1st world problems lead to my addiction to buying work related items. I know very well that I justify the purchase because it is for work, even though it is absolutely unnecessary. It’s what I do, and I’m ok with it- don’t judge. Here are a few of my purchases from this weekend’s therapeutic tryst on Amazon:
1. I have been wanting to get some hourglasses since a few years ago when I started to realize how some frequent fliers need to be validated, but don’t need to miss their entire bell as they would like. I like these because you get varied times. This being, when one of my little babies comes in with a traumatizing (not) weekend friend fight or light vs. dark jeans debacle, I can pull out my hourglass and let them know just how much time they’ve got. I like to have an open door policy, and I like for the kids to get to talk about anything they find relevent to life- even if it is very adolescent appropriate, which means it might not seem like a big deal to us big kids, but it is truly at the center of their little developing world. But a woman’s got to get some work done too! I’m hoping this will be a nice boundary we can all delight in.
2. I also got this little bad boy. When I worked in elementary, I would pull out all of these picture books to help the kids bring their tootsies back down to the ground, and remember how to behave like civilized 2nd graders (if there in fact is such a thing). I have a collection of a ton of cool (and sometimes odd) picture books, that I was saddy-face about when I realized I would not be working in elementary school any time soon. To my delight however, in a slightly sarcastic and patronizing way, I have fond that doing the same to a fit-throwing middle or high schooler can also strike a bit of a cord. Whether it makes them realize they are acting like a 7 year old, or it reminds them of an easier time in elementary school (before the hormones and pressures, and added social scene), or it just offers a funny time-out, some bigger kids enjoy a moral-filled story from their youth too!
OK fine, I did also get a new bag and treat for the pup, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to tie that in with a work necessity. Back to the hourglass- I’m wondering how other counselors decide when student visits are appropriate. How do we make time for the kids, while not taking time away from a very busy academic day? Should they have to make an appointment (barring an emergency- and how do you define emergency when it is different for each kid?) or walk in with teacher permission? Ah time, times, timers.
