I quit!

I don't know if I have mentioned it here, but I am tutoring again this school year. I have a returning student from last year who is now a junior and a 7th grader who is trying to prep to get into the 8th grade Algebra. I've had a few other calls of interest but all have been from the Catholic high school I worked at a couple of years ago and now no longer live near. So once I explain that tutoring is in my home and it's a fair drive (unless you live in the area) I don't hear back.

The junior I am tutoring received her drivers license in November. She was coming twice a week for a half hour each time. Since she has started driving herself, her attendance has been sporadic.

She missed a day and I called and talked to her father who said that she talked like she made it to tutoring. The next time I saw her she apologized and said she spaced out.

Then she missed a week. I left messages with parents and received a text from the junior apologizing for missing.

The next week she texted both days to let me know she couldn't make it. Both times less than an hour before she was supposed to be here.

Then there was the school break. After break she again missed a week and didn't cancel. So I had finally had enough. From the last ten times we were scheduled to meet, she had made it twice. Half of the times she missed she gave me less than an one hour notice. The other times I was left hanging. So I called her parents and left messages saying she hadn't made it and I would no longer be available for tutoring. I was a little chicken and didn't specify that her not showing up was the reason, I was just vague and said I was no longer available.

So imagine my surprise on Monday when the junior shows up at my doorstop for tutoring! "Um," I say, "I left messages with your parents that I wouldn't be able to tutor anymore." She tells me that her dad yelled at her to make it to tutoring. I think I was pretty straightforward in the message, so maybe he didn't listen to all of it? She asks if she can be tutored one more time and I look around trying to find some reason not to, but finally mutter that sure I can today.

I log off of the computer, wheel Xander around in his high chair (where he'd just had his afternoon snack, so I'm wondering how I'll keep him under control) and grab my tutoring binder when the junior says "I don't really have anything to work on, so maybe I'll just go." At this point I try to question her to see what she's working on, but she denies doing any work in class at all. So I see her to the door and roll my eyes as she drives away.

And that entire last paragraph included her texting the entire time. Even while driving away.