Beer Me - oh who are we kidding, just pass my Stonyfield

This has been possibly the worst week of arguing with teachers of my life - and that is a high bar, I assure you.

Part of parenting, most even, is letting go. And I do understand this, but there's a small part that - even at age 10, is being an advocate and teaching your kid how to advocate for himself. And so it is that on Monday, he was given the following math problem (this is from memory, but if it's not the exact wording it's damn close).

• Jamal woke up to find 42 inches of snow outside. This was three and a half times as much as when he went to bed. The new snowfall was five-sixths of the one-day snowfall record. What was the one-day snowfall record.

I glanced at his homework at dinner and noticed an answer of 50.4. I looked at Connor and before I could even question his answer he laughed and from there, life devolved. 

Connor: "I know mom. It's not the right answer - but it's the answer Mr. G. told me to put down."

Me: "But Connor, that answer is wrong."

Connor: "I know."

Me: "Did Mr. G explain to you how he got that answer?"

Connor: "He said something about snow melting."

Me: "Connor, that is ridiculous. The modifier of importance is "new" and I see he has marked your calculation of "new" snow (30 inches) as correct. 30 is not 5/6 o f 50.4."

Connor: "Mom, I know."

Me: "Maybe I'm missing something. Let's confirm with Dad when he gets home."

Eventually, Ed and I had Connor correct the problem, knowing that there was a decent chance a second math teacher would be grading the work, and a wrong answer wasn't going to fly. We even underlined the word "new".

And Mr. G argued with Connor and the rest of the group the next day about why 50.4 was the correct answer, and had Connor change it back to the wrong answer.

So here's the dilemma. I've been telling Connor when he disagrees with the teacher, he needs to ask for an explanation that makes sense to him. He needs to understand why the teacher has a different opinion - and why his answer was wrong. Presumably, they could discuss the problem and come to agreement.

No dice.

So I emailed the teacher and he defended his answer - with absolutely no logic - so I guess more properly he reiterated his answer, and then said that he and the other teacher had agreed to accept both answers.

And all the while I'm thinking - you have just taught my son that when you are wrong the best shot you have at getting through the argument is digging in, hard. That is not a lesson any child needs to be taught - which a friend of mine noted as well.

I'm still beside myself, but rather than eating my way through this with crap food, I'm sinking into some new Stonyfield Yogurt that arrived in my mail a few weeks ago.

This one was plain - but there's a whole bunch of flavors but rather than the fruit being mixed into the yogurt when it's packaged, it's in a little sidecar thing and you can mix in as much as you like.

My recommendation?  All of it. Because life is crazy and stressful and that extra bit of strawberry or blueberry sometimes makes all my problems disappear. Or at least I get a nice protein boost to fuel a run!

I'm a Stonyfield YoGetter and received free yogurt in the mail. Total delight. I loved it. Thank you, Stonyfield.