That really gets my goat.
No, not another rant. Normal service has been resumed...

My mother, the esteemed Mrs Rakky, is a psychologist and currently works in a hospital with children. You know, I can almost hear the murmurs of “Aaaah, that explains a lot then…”

Some of the kids mum works with are severely damaged. They’ve been abused, beaten, bullied, abandoned. You wonder why some kids are fuck ups, look at the way they’re treated by the very people who are supposed to protect them.

One of the things that mum has tried to do is to take kids out of the hospital setting and let them interact with the real world in a carefully controlled manner. This can be something as simple as a trip to the supermarket, to help them understand how to behave in public, or how “buying things” works; an alien concept to a teenager who has been brought up in a family who traded drugs for their daily essentials. She also takes them out to do nice things, education fun days, to museums, art galleries. People thought she was mad to try it, these kids are out of control and my mum is barely five feet tall, in her 60s, how in god’s name is she going to deal with a six foot 14 year old boy who thinks that exposing himself is a good way to introduce himself to people. But she has a way with them, plus she takes along a cohort of strapping male psychiatric nurses, just in case.

She took a group of the little uns to the petting zoo. It was a glorious day – the staff at the zoo had been prewarned that these kids were a little different and had got some of the less easily spooked animals out so that the kids could interact with them. One of the things mum tries to encourage is for the kids to improve their communication skills, to talk about what they are doing and describe their surroundings. Stuff that I guess most of us took for granted.

One little lad, about 9 years old, was stroking a goat. He was obviously totally fascinated by it and so my mum took the opportunity to get him to talk about it. Now this kid has been in care and in therapy since he was about 5 years old. Mum turns to him and says

“Do you like the goat?”

“Yes Mrs Rakky, the goat is beautiful”

“What does the goat look like?”

“He has white fur and two things on his head and big brown eyes”

“And how does he feel?”

The boy stops, considers, then looks the goat straight in the eye and says

“How do you feel?”

Apparently the nurse who was videoing this exchange had to hand mum the camera so he could go off and wee himself laughing.

Mum retires this summer. She’s spent the last 40 years looking after the children that no one else wants. She’s been punched, kicked, spat at, flashed more times than she cares to remember and has had to talk a child out of suicide. And she never once raised her voice or raised a hand in anger. I’ve had emails from kids that she taught (mum doesn’t do email) asking me to thank her for believing in them as they now have a job / house / family and a life.

And she didn’t do that bad a job with me. After all, she created a b3tard…

Click “I like this” if you think my mum deserves an OBE, or at the least a big ice cream and a gold star for being fab…
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:18, 21 replies)

Ice cream and a gold star!
much better than anything you could get off the queen.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:22, closed)

Queen?
You could've got anal, but possibly AIDs too.
( Cawl, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:26, closed)

But,
if he had dwarves walking round with bowls of cocaine on their heads it would be worth it.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:27, closed)

Tell your mum
she is fucking awesome!

Glad to see there are still people out there with a heart, willing to take care of those rejected by society through no fault of their own.
I understand where you come from as my mum done a similar act, albeit it was just with me, taking me in away from the horrors of my biological family, gaining custody and raising me to be the nice IT manager/b3tard that I am today.

Give her a hug from me.
( diablo290582 Professional.....something., Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:27, closed)

.
*makes big batch of ice-cream*
Any flavour in particular? I do a mean white chocolate, cinnamon and chilli...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:28, closed)

I have great admiration
for anyone who can do a job like that. I'm not made that way, and would have no patience whatsoever with the type of people your mum helps.

*click* for your mum.

(who, according to what I've gleaned about you from previous posts, also managed to produce a daughter who's a foot taller than she is....that's damned good going!)

_{Edit: Sorry, "gleaned" sounds like I'm a stalker or something. "Learned" is perhaps more appropriate!}
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:37, closed)

*Click*
Funny, heart warming and a demonstration that there are good people on the earth!

Yuur mum defo deserves a medal!
(Fuckarma was masturbating into your handbag, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:44, closed)

your mum...
sounds fabulous. my sister is a social worker and deals with similarly-damaged kids. she's so far:
--had two black eyes (not at the same time)
--a swollen lip
--dozens of cuts and scratches
--40 or 50 death threats

She still loves doing it, and cried when she had to leave the last school she was at.
(tuqueboy has been in a medically -induced coma since, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:47, closed)

I don't like this
I bloody love it!

*clicky*
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:47, closed)

OBE
for your Mum indeed. I get rather annoyed when people go all Daily Mail about punishing kids for bad behavior and don't acknowledge just how much damage a neglectful upbringing inflicts on the developing brain.
One day they'll listen to the lovely Camila Batmanghelidjh. They'll work out eventually how to stop children turning into disturbed young people and how to help fix them instead of just labelling them monsters.
( moogy boobles, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 17:17, closed)

*click*
your mum sounds awesome, *clicks*
(Patfish, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 17:49, closed)

Quality story and quality mum
Heard an interview with Rhys Evans on telly once....he said "You know, me mam and dad were teachers and taught thousands of kids how to read and write for 40 years each. I turn up, star in 1 film and earn more than they ever did, which is just wrong."

Weird world we live in where people like your mum get overlooked by someone who was good in a chick-flick a few times for example. She sounds awesome :D
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 17:56, closed)

all of the above
*click*
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 17:59, closed)

Funny story,
and your mum is awesome! Give her many hugs!
( Bob Todd whee, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 18:03, closed)

You know,
I might print this out and give it to her as a birthday prezzie. She'd be right embarrassed... :)

St Enzyme (congrats on the cannonization, btw), any flavour ice cream will be fine. But no booze in it, she doesn't drink. I know, I don't get it either...

And K2K6: Mum is 5 foot and a little bit, dad was somewhere around the 6'4" or 6'5" mark. Thus resulting height of Rakky was just shy of 6 foot. Odd thing is me and my mum are identical, she looks like a mini me. When I was about 12, I'd already outgrown her size wise. We were at a motor show and I turned to say something to her and couldnt see her. I looked down and said, rather confused "Are you standing in a hole?"

She has never quite forgiven me for that one. So I just put things on her head when I'm standing next to her, or run up behind her and pick her up when she's not expecting it...
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 18:41, closed)

Big hugs to your Mum!
She sounds like a true star.
;O)
( DUMBLONDE is a rubber lover girl, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 19:58, closed)

Your Mum
is a Saint.
(Dante licked your nipple on, Tue 22 Apr 2008, 0:01, closed)

I'm so saying "are you standing in a hole" to my mum
hehe shes tiny
(The Ear-Trumpet Addicting is NOT a word., Tue 22 Apr 2008, 11:31, closed)

Much esteem!
OBE? She deserves a damehood at least.

*click*
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Tue 22 Apr 2008, 17:54, closed)

*applause for your mum*
What a fantastic person she is! I have much respect for people that do that sort of job.
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Wed 23 Apr 2008, 13:03, closed)