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We've seen plenty of group home parenting humor
Often enough the group home parenting humor we've experienced has ended up laughing at us, Trent and Wanda Yonge, in our years of experience as live-in group home houseparents. We try not to let that bother us too much, though. The average houseparent hits burnout at around nine months on the job. We have hung in there for nearly eight YEARS now. I'm Wanda, the writer in our family. Trent works out and plays sports. Between the two of us, we manage to bond with a relatively high percentage of the teenagers who come to us in crisis. Without group home houseparenting humor, though, we'd have hit burnout no later than the national average. Maybe earlier.
(Back pain? Insomnia? To dish up quick relief, click on the Kugan Road Kill!)
================================================================= Group Home Moments My man and I help out teenage kids And here they aar-r-r-! (Names changed to keep us from getting beat up, sued, or otherwise abused.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Arnica Kugan, age 12, whose family had literally relied on roadkill for protein until she came to us. She fixed supper for the Home one night, preparing what she called Kugan Road Kill Supreme. The goulash looked like it COULD have been road kill at one time. Three of the boys refused to eat it. The rest of us gobbled it down with relish. It was GREAT! Arnica kept her recipe a secret; not even my husband Trent knew (until I included the story for this page) that ordinary tomato paste plus ground beef and ground pork from Safeway provided the special effects. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Sean Jameson, a burly two-hundred-pounder, came to us directly from jail at age sixteen. He was very fast on his feet and had outrun police twice before being arrested. Male ego was very important to him, but it got deflated dramatically when 14-year-old blondie Margo Trueblood smoked him in the hundred yard dash. What was funniest was the look on his face when she crossed the finish line a good ten yards ahead of him. We have it on film. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Finn Maisch, at age thirteen, swore his dog was smarter than any cat could ever be. The canine wasn't allowed to live with us and our four cats, but one day Thunder (that's the dog, a Rottweiler cross) rode along with Finn's mother for a visit. And got loose. Naturally, Thunder went Thundering after our nearest cat, an orange (neutered) tom named Rusty. Never mind the chase itself. AFTER the chase, Rusty circled back around, eventually coming to rest atop the tool shed. From there, he calmly and curiously watched Thunder go nuts trying to sniff out a fresh cat trail... without once thinking to look UP. "Look up, you dumb dog!" Finn kept yelling at him. Thunder never did. In fairness to the Rottie, however, he KNEW his master couldn't possibly be talking to HIM...because after all, HE wasn't dumb. Certainly the cat was not. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Violet and Ronetta were best friends who ran away from home at age fourteen. When they got back home, Violet's Mom called and asked if the two girls could check into our facility on a voluntary basis. Ronetta's Mom was glad to go along with whatever the others decided. We agreed (since Trent is also Executive Director of the Home, we have that authority). They were with us for just one week, during which time a Behavioral Contract was signed by all concerned. The humorous part came after the girls returned home. Ronetta had no Dad, but Violet did, a long haul trucker. Mom and both girls felt he could be home more often if he wanted to. When Violet's Dad came in off the road a few weeks later, he signed the contract as well. He also sent us a card that said, Roses are red Signed...Bartholomew Sidley, R.A.T.* Founding Member That one didn't just make our day. It made our whole month.
================================================================= Publisher's note: As a former long haul trucker my own self, I'm impressed. But I haven't quite bottomed out yet. Keep that R.A.T. organization away from me! Thanks for reading, Fred Group Home Parenting Humor, Some Great Excuses Home Return to Publish Your Humor
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