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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think it Is it a feasible proposal that a school might consider allowing a currently pregnant Year 12 the opportunity to repeat year 12 next yeara currently pregnant currently pregnant year 12

542 replies

redhilary · 21/10/2021 20:07

I have reposted this thread from chat due to limited traffic.

Is it a feasible proposal that a school might consider allowing a currently pregnant year 12 girl the opportunity to repeat Year 12 next year.

OP posts:
redhilary · 28/10/2021 20:25

Tirednworried. She is currently doing English, Chemistry and History she attained GCSE grade 7 for all three of them. I have only mentioned these subjects once, to avoid a bombardment of posters indicating the choices are likely to lead to a complete failure.

the school has already reconsidered, the majority of the thread has been posters suggesting that F.E and or Sixth - Form Colleges are just the ticket for young mothers.

OP posts:
Whinge · 28/10/2021 20:45

the majority of the thread has been posters suggesting that F.E and or Sixth - Form Colleges are just the ticket for young mothers.

I'd say the majority of the thread has actually been posters telling you to stop interfering and let the poor girl make her own decisions. You're far too invested in this situation.

Howshouldibehave · 28/10/2021 21:00

I'd say the majority of the thread has actually been posters telling you to stop interfering and let the poor girl make her own decisions. You're far too invested in this situation

Completely agree with this. It all sounds bizarre and quite suffocating.

redhilary · 28/10/2021 21:29

Even if this poor girl keeps ringing you up and asking for you to take control of her life for her should I just butt out despite bringing her up for two years. As of today S.O.S phone call she now wants to live with me and my family full time permanent basis. Hence, she is fed up of having limited rules and in how her mother does not discipline her for her stupid actions. In such as she would like the some of the discipline and rules I impart on my DD's, such as strict minimum number of hours of homework each night over six days and 9.30/10.30/12.30 bedtime curfews I insist on for DD2 and DD1on Weekdays/Friday/Saturday respectively. I let DD 2 stay up to 12.30 on Friday/Saturday DD1 also has to be in the house by 10pm if she goes out at the weekend DD 2 has to be brought back by parents or me by 8.30 pm.

This is the type of discipline is sadly missing from her mother, hence her strolling in at 2-3 AM was not uncommon during the lockdown and during her destructive dalliance with fate. I think therefore she craves being mothered and wants similar restrictions to which I impart on my 13 year old DD2. I think this type of parenting makes her feel safe and comfortable.

OP posts:
redhilary · 28/10/2021 21:31

This is the type of discipline that is sadly missing from the remit of her mother.

OP posts:
Nibblypiggotonabus · 28/10/2021 21:42

This is now becoming very weird....

As previous posters have said, think you need to take a step back and let her family handle this.

youvegottenminuteslynn · 28/10/2021 21:55

Your role should be to speak to your friend, her mother, and give her guidance if you feel she needs it (which you clearly do) rather than undermine her by having these conversations with her daughter who is a child. Especially if it's her mum who is apparently going to be raising her child for the most part!

Whether it's come from a good place or not, boundaries have been hugely overstepped here and you could be contributing to causing even more damage to their relationship.

Can you see that at all? Please don't be defensive, try to take that in and consider whether it could be the case.

It's an incredibly complex dynamic and I wonder if that's something you maybe have trouble understanding the nuances of? Again, rather than take this as an attack can you try to see if any of it resonates and may be important to take on board for everyone's benefit?

youvegottenminuteslynn · 28/10/2021 21:55

That was meant to say:

Especially if it's her mum who is apparently going to be raising her daughter's child for the most part!

MatronicO6 · 28/10/2021 21:59

Yes, you should just butt out. You have inserted yourself into this girl and her family's life far too much. Quite frankly what happens with her schooling has nothing to do with you or your perception of the situation. Grammar schools impose expectations on pupil effort. If they feel she cannot commit to this they do not owe her a place. It sounds like it is not only based on current situation but past behavior and effort, which will be exasperated by a baby.

You clearly relish in the role of being some kind of saviour and superior mother here. That's why you are pursuing this and inserting yourself so deeply in it. Your total control and discipline of your daughters is not healthy and not some gold standard of parenting. Get over yourself and stop interfering.

LittleBearPad · 28/10/2021 22:00

She might want to be mothered and treated like your 13 year old but she’s about to become a mother! The ship has sailed and she needs to do some rapid growing up. She needs to be helped to do that not treated as a child. Her family need to do that

DumplingsAndStew · 28/10/2021 22:17

This whole dynamic sounds totally fucked up. I pity all of the poor girls in these two families.

HoppingPavlova · 28/10/2021 22:18

As of today S.O.S phone call she now wants to live with me and my family full time permanent basis. Hence, she is fed up of having limited rules and in how her mother does not discipline her for her stupid actions. In such as she would like the some of the discipline and rules I impart on my DD's, such as strict minimum number of hours of homework each night over six days and 9.30/10.30/12.30 bedtime curfews I insist on for DD2 and DD1on Weekdays/Friday/Saturday respectively.

At any point in this did a baby get taken into consideration? How will the baby fit with this strict number of hours for homework? What if the baby needs to be fed or settled after the bedtime curfew she is now demanding? You seem to have glossed over it! No one seems to actually be taking the fact there will be a real life baby soon. She is clearly in denial, fuck knows what is going on with the mother and you are so far into cuckoo land it’s unbelievable. Hopefully she does stay at the school who no doubt are clued in to this whole dysfunctional mess and they will get social services involved as that’s what it requires at this point because the adults in her life are completely failing her, and more importantly a baby cannot live in this shitshow.

MrsTidyHouse · 28/10/2021 23:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsTidyHouse · 28/10/2021 23:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LittleBearPad · 28/10/2021 23:15

@HoppingPavlova

As of today S.O.S phone call she now wants to live with me and my family full time permanent basis. Hence, she is fed up of having limited rules and in how her mother does not discipline her for her stupid actions. In such as she would like the some of the discipline and rules I impart on my DD's, such as strict minimum number of hours of homework each night over six days and 9.30/10.30/12.30 bedtime curfews I insist on for DD2 and DD1on Weekdays/Friday/Saturday respectively.

At any point in this did a baby get taken into consideration? How will the baby fit with this strict number of hours for homework? What if the baby needs to be fed or settled after the bedtime curfew she is now demanding? You seem to have glossed over it! No one seems to actually be taking the fact there will be a real life baby soon. She is clearly in denial, fuck knows what is going on with the mother and you are so far into cuckoo land it’s unbelievable. Hopefully she does stay at the school who no doubt are clued in to this whole dysfunctional mess and they will get social services involved as that’s what it requires at this point because the adults in her life are completely failing her, and more importantly a baby cannot live in this shitshow.

She’s doesn’t appear to be the only person in denial!
Scirocco · 28/10/2021 23:22

Please just leave this poor girl be and let her live her own life.

You're way too involved here and trying to take far too much control of a situation that really is not your responsibility. This is harmful for her health, your health and your daughters' health, as well as the poor baby that's somehow got to fit into this incredibly rigid life plan you've designed.

YouJustFoldItIn · 29/10/2021 06:20

Red I think you have always had a real bee in your bonnet about never fulfilling your potential as a young student because of undiagnosed autism and other conditions. You like to lay blame for that at everyone you can.

As a result you've spent your life since having children obsessing over making sure your they achieve and are supported (or controlled?) to achieve, coached to go get into to the best schools you can find in your area without needing to pay (although you've suggested in the past that your siblings are terrible people for not offering to pay for your own DC to have a private education, even when you were not working and neither was their father, or he was earning very poorly if I recall.)

Perhaps because you are autistic your particular pet topic/obsession is grammar school education compared to non-grammar or 'modern school' education, as you like to call it, and you can compare and quote at random the results scores of grammar schools and other high performing schools up and down the country, even in areas where you don't live. If that's your 'thing' then by all means enjoy it.

But this girl who may or may not be your goddaughter (or perhaps your niece?) is not your toy or a chess piece to be used in your personal vendetta against a system you feel let you down. You can't live vicariously through her, trying to right the educational wrongs as you see them, that were done to you.

She isn't you. Doggedly pushing her to where you would have liked to be at her age is not going to change the way you feel about yourself. She may say she welcomes this intervention but I think she is just playing to her audience because she enjoys the attention she's getting from you.

Besides, this is about so much more than making sure she's supported in education with her autism and dyslexia. She is about to have a baby and you seem alarmingly unaware of the full impact that is going to have on the day to day life of an autistic 17 year old. You seem to think this baby is nothing more than a fly in the ointment, and as opposed to the main thing^ that everything else should be centred around from now on.

If she's asking to live with you now it's not because she 'wants' the very strict boundaries you would put in place, and you are pretty soon going to find that out the hard way.

She wants to live with you because she's an immature, pregnant, rebellious teen with some behavioural issues who objects to her mother's efforts to control her, however half hearted those efforts may seem to you. It's extremely arrogant and deluded to assume that the only reason she's pregnant and not engaging properly in education is because you haven't been allowed to take the reins and manage her life for her, and if you had it would all have been different.

Running to you now is nothing more than a way of sticking it to her mother. Can't you see that? If she says she is relishing the idea of monitored minimum homework hours and an evening curfew she's just playing you. Even if she thinks she wants that, she's being incredibly naive. She has a baby to put first for a start. Who is going to look after this baby while you are busy coaching her and helicoptering over her several hours a day? And you think you are going to draft in your mother and your husband with this project too, when this girl has two parents of her own?

You are so alarmingly lacking in understanding of what is the right thing to do here, it's unbelievable.

If you really want to help, then your focus should be on helping her not screw up this child she's bringing into the world. God knows that sounds like enough of a challenge to keep the lot of you busy.

Howshouldibehave · 29/10/2021 08:48

@YouJustFoldItIn

Red I think you have always had a real bee in your bonnet about never fulfilling your potential as a young student because of undiagnosed autism and other conditions. You like to lay blame for that at everyone you can.

As a result you've spent your life since having children obsessing over making sure your they achieve and are supported (or controlled?) to achieve, coached to go get into to the best schools you can find in your area without needing to pay (although you've suggested in the past that your siblings are terrible people for not offering to pay for your own DC to have a private education, even when you were not working and neither was their father, or he was earning very poorly if I recall.)

Perhaps because you are autistic your particular pet topic/obsession is grammar school education compared to non-grammar or 'modern school' education, as you like to call it, and you can compare and quote at random the results scores of grammar schools and other high performing schools up and down the country, even in areas where you don't live. If that's your 'thing' then by all means enjoy it.

But this girl who may or may not be your goddaughter (or perhaps your niece?) is not your toy or a chess piece to be used in your personal vendetta against a system you feel let you down. You can't live vicariously through her, trying to right the educational wrongs as you see them, that were done to you.

She isn't you. Doggedly pushing her to where you would have liked to be at her age is not going to change the way you feel about yourself. She may say she welcomes this intervention but I think she is just playing to her audience because she enjoys the attention she's getting from you.

Besides, this is about so much more than making sure she's supported in education with her autism and dyslexia. She is about to have a baby and you seem alarmingly unaware of the full impact that is going to have on the day to day life of an autistic 17 year old. You seem to think this baby is nothing more than a fly in the ointment, and as opposed to the main thing^ that everything else should be centred around from now on.

If she's asking to live with you now it's not because she 'wants' the very strict boundaries you would put in place, and you are pretty soon going to find that out the hard way.

She wants to live with you because she's an immature, pregnant, rebellious teen with some behavioural issues who objects to her mother's efforts to control her, however half hearted those efforts may seem to you. It's extremely arrogant and deluded to assume that the only reason she's pregnant and not engaging properly in education is because you haven't been allowed to take the reins and manage her life for her, and if you had it would all have been different.

Running to you now is nothing more than a way of sticking it to her mother. Can't you see that? If she says she is relishing the idea of monitored minimum homework hours and an evening curfew she's just playing you. Even if she thinks she wants that, she's being incredibly naive. She has a baby to put first for a start. Who is going to look after this baby while you are busy coaching her and helicoptering over her several hours a day? And you think you are going to draft in your mother and your husband with this project too, when this girl has two parents of her own?

You are so alarmingly lacking in understanding of what is the right thing to do here, it's unbelievable.

If you really want to help, then your focus should be on helping her not screw up this child she's bringing into the world. God knows that sounds like enough of a challenge to keep the lot of you busy.

Some really excellent advice here.

Keeping the baby at the centre of all of the decisions to stop them getting screwed up is key here. Not pretending it doesn’t exist so that this pregnant teen can get equivalent A levels to the OP which is about as relevant to anything as a chocolate teapot.

TirednWorried · 29/10/2021 11:11

She is fed up of having limited rules and in how her mother does not discipline her for her stupid actions. In such as she would like the some of the discipline and rules I impart on my DD's, such as strict minimum number of hours of homework each night over six days and 9.30/10.30/12.30 bedtime curfews I insist on for DD2 and DD1on Weekdays/Friday/Saturday respectively.

Said no 16 year old ever

Viviennemary · 29/10/2021 11:35

If she doesn't approve of her mother's lax parenting methods then why is the baby to be handed over to this woman to be brought up. The whole thing is totally illogical. Never mind if the child goes off the rails it can be handed back to you to sort out.

inferiorCatSlave · 29/10/2021 12:06

Your role should be to speak to your friend, her mother, and give her guidance if you feel she needs it (which you clearly do) rather than undermine her by having these conversations with her daughter who is a child. Especially if it's her mum who is apparently going to be raising her child for the most part!

I've read the thread and it does seem OP undermines this mother as both DDs complain to her about lax parenting.

I would be fuming if I found out that a family friend or family member was undermining my relationship with my children this way.

Then as Viviennemary say why if the parenting is so bad is this new baby being handed over to her.

None of this makes any sense - the 16 year can clearly go on - if she wants- to get A-levels and later a degree - many women in this situation go on and do so - but the OPs obsession that the only way is her way staying on at this school is bloody odd as is the complete failure to realse there will be a baby to consider that will mean massive changes.

redhilary · 29/10/2021 12:51

Whatever I say will get me condemned by one poster or another but here goes. Goddaughter wants to live with her baby and my family Monday-Friday if she decides to continue in education in the near future. What she wants to happen, if she is still in her current place of education and restarts year 12 in September is to live with her mother over the Weekend but with my family over the school week.

She proposes on weekdays that I drop the baby off at her mothers at 8AM and then take her to school for 8.40 AM . Then at about 6PM on weekdays her mother will bring the baby back to my house to reunite mother and child Thus, the only time Goddaughter will be separated from her baby is when she is at school, which is only about 15 minutes drive from the school if she needs to bond with her child. ( if the child was in a Creche in a F.E College would not mean she would have any more contact with her child than this anyway)

This is not my idea but Goddaughters mother and Goddaughter wants to at least see if this can work.

Fold, I am flattered you would get up at 5 am and write 300- 400 words about the further adventures of redhilary.

OP posts:
youvegottenminuteslynn · 29/10/2021 13:10

@redhilary you seem more interested in being defensive than against taking on board some things you might not have considered or might have struggled to understand when it comes to nuanced dynamics.

I personally wrote what I hoped was a thoughtful and sensitive to you post trying to unravel a bit of it but it feels like you are more keen to engage with people you think are attacking you instead of really listening and maybe rethinking your approach a bit. It's a shame as I think it comes from a good place. But I regret taking time over it if it's been wasted and you don't really want people's thoughts after all?

redhilary · 29/10/2021 13:39

I am taking on board that I perhaps can be overinvested in keeping rigid structures in place. I thank posters for allowing me to consider that I should accept I can't control everything my kids or Goddaughter wrongly undertake .

I am also aware that my rigid way of thinking needs to change, as my children get older . They will inevitably, stray from any over arching pathway I might be trying to plot. Who knows the brightest of the 4 'Brady' Bunch kids DD2, might decide not got to University @18 and instead become a full time 'Insulate Britain' protester. I would have to accept as a mother, it was her choice to glue herself to the road. No matter how much I would be upset or disappointed, that she prefers to be glued to the road then be studying .

OP posts:
youvegottenminuteslynn · 29/10/2021 16:33

Can you also see how your behaviour is undermining her mum rather than giving her space to step up? You could support her mum in doing that but instead you're taking over by undermining her and discussing her daughters future with her daughter in a way that excludes her mum to a large extent. It is an incredibly complex dynamic that I don't think you're navigating in a way that is most productive or realistic for anyone involved, even if your intentions are good.

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