Family Affair

“Sissy, it’s so annoying that you have to go to school now.”

This was Ezra’s declaration this morning as N. was heading out the door to go to school. N., you might remember, is staying with us during the week while she attends school in town.  But “N.” is less than warm and familial as a pseudonym, so I’ll refer to her here as the boys do, as Sissy.

Whenever they call her Sissy, I think of the eldest sister, Cissy, on Family Affair, the sixties TV show about a bachelor who adopts his brother’s three orphaned children.  That show had its problems, but I loved watching reruns as a kid.  The idea that you can make a family out of nearly any configuration certainly stuck with me.

Sissy is on the couch right now re-writing her history assignment after I made some editorial comments on what she did not know was only a draft.  Is this considered cheating?  I have no idea what to do with a teenage student.  Which is kind of remarkable really since I taught high school for eight years.  But I’m still figuring out my role here -some combination of cheerleader, coach, teacher, and strict but loving Mr. French.

Poor Sissy.  She’s been doing homework for over three hours and she’s not quite done. She would have been done two hours ago if I hadn’t made her redo some of it, do some extra Spanish work online, and make her look up some more information for her history report.

Oh well, Sissy.  If you’re gonna be part of this family affair, you’ll have to put up our version of Mr. French, the old-school teacher who thinks you shouldn’t turn it in until you are pretty sure you’re going to get an A.