Irrelevant

So, sometimes I get the feeling that I'm just a warm body in the room. I'm there, a calm, reassuring adult presence, for the sake of propriety, but nobody is actually paying any attention to me.

At school, I sometimes feel like I might as well be preaching to the wind. At home, I'm not much more than a way to get things - I can open the fridge and reach things, but that's about it.

Whatever I have to say, whether it's how to pronounce something or to stop beating your sister, falls on deaf ears. Nobody gives the slightest sign that they've heard me - bad behavior continues unabated, mispronunciation doesn't change, rules go unheeded. I could probably make an announcement regarding the apocalypse and my kids and my students would just keep right on ignoring me.

I seriously wonder what would happen if I just took a day off. If I hired someone else to stand around and say "don't do that" at random intervals, would anyone even notice that I was miles away? I might just try that this weekend.