Children of Alcoholics Educational Cat Video and Free Classroom Handouts

 

A new Educational Cat Video from School News Today helps children of alcoholics identify the symptoms of living with an alcoholic including shame, anger and fear of rejection.  

The video presents the material from the point of view of a gender-neutral, ethnically neutral yellow cat.

What Cats Need To Know About Alcoholism:

Are you a kitten with an alcoholic parent?

Characteristics of Children of Alcoholics

You may…

1. Feel isolated from other cats
2. Judge yourself harshly
3. Be a cat pleaser or a people pleaser
4. Fear rejection
5. Get strange illnesses
6. Take care of other kittens
7. Have hidden anger or externalized anger
8. Feel shame
9. Keep bad secrets
10. Accept bad cats
11. Accept bad situations

Children of Alcoholics Need To Know

It is not your fault!
Find good cats!
Cats deserve love!

Teachers With Alcoholic Administrators

Teachers at Public School Zero met today in a private support group to discuss the special issues that come with teaching under an alcoholic administrator. They found a close correlation between the syndromes associated with being a child of alcoholics and their own problems.  

Impacts of Alcoholism on the Workplace

The group identified the following impacts on teachers from the alcoholism of an unnamed administrator:

1. Teachers have been isolating in their classrooms to avoid negative interactions with the Alcoholic Administrator in the hallways or staff room. It’s lonely when you are sheltering in place to avoid an acerbic butt-pincher with bad breath.
2. Several teachers reported having harsh thoughts about their own inability to prevent the alcoholic rages of the unnamed administrator. One teacher was observed lost in thoughts of regret, picking at an infected scab on his arm throughout the meeting.
3. In an attempt to placate the Alcoholic Administrator and de-escalate his rage, teachers found themselves playing up to him and flattering him. Some took on extra work to cover for him and to protect students from his failure to file recommendations and hand in CPS paperwork. One teacher dropped off the Alcoholic Administrator’s car at the auto body shop for him rather than have him driving drunk. When the Superintendent was in the building teachers found themselves going out of their way to make the school look better than it is and to create a false impression of cheer and conviviality.
4. The culture of fear at Public School Zero cultivated by the Alcoholic Administrator caused teachers to think that they could not speak up with any admin. They were afraid their petition to have doors put on the stalls of the staff bathroom since they were torn off by the admin in a fit of rage, will be rejected as any mention of the problems with the Alcoholic Administrator are stonewalled by the administration.
5. Jose, Donna, and Maria all reported psychosomatic stomach pains after particularly upsetting interactions with the alcoholic administrator (none of them had had the ill-fated tainted potluck chili that closed down the school last month). All teachers said they felt much better on Mondays and Fridays when the Alcoholic Administrator was most likely to take what they called Lush Weekends.
6. There was an unspoken understanding that teachers would fill in to comfort and care for students who were victims of alcoholic behavior. One Spanish teacher has a special drawer of treats he hands out to students who have had a bad encounter with the Alcoholic Administrator. Another teacher noted she had secretly raided the administrator’s bulk supply of breath mints while he was out on a bender and redistributed the “Player Pills” to students.
7. Two teachers reported yelling at spouses after a day of dealing with the Alcoholic Administrator and other teachers reported repressed anger eating into their guts like a bottle of Draino.
8. All the teachers reported feelings of shame that they were not able to protect themselves or their students from the Alcoholic Administrator, who has made himself untouchable through an ingenious combination of blackmail, nepotism, and password theft. There was universal bitterness that it was impossible to follow the usual suggestions for how to deal with alcoholism in the workplace, beyond documenting every incident in an anonymous shared Google Doc of over fifty pages.
9. No one was willing to discuss the secrets they held, but everyone raised their hand to say they had a secret hanging over them like a rabid Turkey Vulture on a dark night.
10. Teachers shared that the atmosphere of intimidation, fear and random conflict cultivated by the Alcoholic Administrator had seeped into every aspect of Public School Zero from staff parking space distribution to potluck food safety.

 

Also Read: Box Breathing Exercises and Free Downloadable Classroom Handout