I'm not your mother.

Today was one of those "Take a deeeeeeeeeeeeep breath" days - busy, stressful, and not much accomplished. However, about halfway through the day, it occured to me that my students simply take take take from me. They give me nothing.

Alpha Male had a scheduled meeting with me. I had another student scheduled immediately after him, so this would not get off topic. He asked if I wanted to look over his homework before he turned it in. Not "would you please look it over to be sure I've done it right." He asked, "Do you want to look over my homework?" Dude, I know that you had some major issues with paper #1, and I know I looked over paper #2 to help you identify those issues, but this will NOT be an ongoing event. You're an adult, and I'm not your mother.

Then, as we continued our meeting, which was about paper topics, he said that he did not have a research question in mind right now. Did I want him to come in tomorrow to talk to tell me about it after he'd had some more time to think? No. No no no. God no. I won't make time out of my insane Tuesday to sit and talk with you about something you're supposed to have already been thinking about. I don't care that much about you. I'm not your mother.

Finally, on the quiz he turned in, he decided that he need to write long, flowery explanations to every answer, and to write an entire paragraph about how he should know the answer to the extra credit but didn't. I have 30 quizzes to grade. Yours is not special to me. I am not your mother.

But its not just him - its the student who thinks "Office Hours are from 1-4" means drop by at noon when I'm trying to eat/work. Or the student who, when told that no, he can't use wikipedia, and has been shown why (I went into an entry and randomly edited it), asks why I can't just trust him to be able to tell the difference between good information on wikipedia and bad information on wikipedia. Its the student who comes early to meeting, during the 5 minutes I specified as being my time to regroup between meetings with students and wants to know why he has to wait in the hallway while I'm typing on the computer. I need to post a sign on the wall. It needs to say, "I'm not your mother, and I don't love you."