There’s a lot I haven’t said about the past year. Lots of things have happened to make it quite a stressful year in lots of ways. But now that it’s over, I think I can talk about it with a laugh instead of a scream!

I’ve been the president of the kindergarten committee of management for the last year. When I volunteered for the job, the description was basically “Know about everything that goes on, and sign lots of things.” What they never said anything about was the ongoing problem with a specific staff member. This staff member was on two warnings when I arrived, close to being terminated, and she continued her poor behaviour for the first half of the year. Fortunately for my stress levels, she resigned in August. Unfortunately, she continued to haunt me, wanting to come back and visit, and claiming that the way she’d been treated was bullying and illegal and all sorts of things. I stood my ground, with the support of the rest of the committee, and she’s left me alone for a while now. Phew.

They also never said anything about the tendency of people to gossip, backstab, lie, manipulate, and generally be awful. We had more than one committee member leave us under somewhat dubious circumstances. We also had parents squabbling amongst themselves and then looking to kindergarten staff to sort out their childish problems!

The up-side of all this is that I’ve been inspired to start writing a new book. It is going to be a highly fictionalised account of the year. I think I’ve got quite enough dramatic material to make it interesting!