blossy

This weekend has been totally hectic. Damned graduations!!! I have 4 friends and one student graduating. (Special education paraprofessional, working in a local developmental center in conjunction with a rural USD). It would be great if the kids family weren't so UGH! We had it planned that he would be going to the high school to get ready, because the teacher and CM and I all knew that if we sent the clothes home with him on Friday there was no way in hell he would be wearing them today because the family would have decided they were too nice for him and have returned them and spent the money on other things. Well, his mom gets some attitude with me and says he can't be there at 4:00pm (20 minutes before he had to be there anyway) and now I have to drive up to their shanty and actually go inside and stuff. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The smell that emanates from their clothes is enough to make a person puke! I work primarily with his sister, she's non-verbal severely multiply handicapped and a sweetie! We also got her a nice outfit to wear this weekend and I was going to get her ready there as well but now that is shot to shit. To give you an idea of how dirty these people are, two weeks off for Xmas break and NEITHER child had a shower that WHOLE time! I am basically "pseudo-mom" to two kids who are 18 and 20 respectively. My job is basically to teach her to be more independent but with that comes proper hygiene (I shower her daily), eating (she didn't know how to use a fork before I got her), life skills (dressing herself) she needs alot of hand over hand one on one support but heck this year we've had some huge breakthroughs, she can successfully go to the bathroom without my constant help now, and she puts her shoes on her own feet, and she hugs people of her own accord, and initiates contact with people she barely knows (HUGE steps for someone who is tacticlely defensive as she is). I also do their laundry, take them shopping for new clothes (which we keep at the workshop), new jackets, hygiene stuff, snacks for the workshop and home.