Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I’m feeling battered and bruised mentally having recently had my finances scrutinised for the 2nd time in a year. Now I’m facing a Work Capability Assessment as I’m only working 12 hours per week term time and according to the Job Centre this is unacceptable. My appointment was last week but had to be rescheduled as they had run late and I couldn’t stay due to needing to collect my child from school. A day of huge emotional distress for absolutely no point and I’ll now live with permanent anxiety anticipating the rescheduled assessment.

I already know the outcome of the assessment - zero points. Having done my due diligence, the symptoms of my multiple health conditions don't fit the neat little check boxes of the overwhelming criteria.

I want to sit down with a real human being - one who will listen and make a logical judgement. I don’t want a random ‘medical professional’ who has never heard of my disease to read from a script.

The very fact that I actually have a job (zero hours contract) will be interpreted as ‘fit to work’. 6 months ago I was dismissed from my employment on the grounds of incapacity due to ill health - surely that should mean something? I now work 3 days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday as I need a day to rest and recover in-between. Irrelevant information they will say…

I’m a full time solo parent carer to my 8 year old autistic son. Until he is in receipt of DLA (26 week wait for form to be processed) I can’t ‘register’ as his carer.

And so it continues - The endless pressure of not doing enough, not being enough, the sanctions for not jumping through the hoops on time.

Maybe if they were square not round I might stand a chance at navigating this system.

As a parent my child has had days where staying home was necessary for emotional recovery. Unfortunately, attendance policies don’t always allow flexibility. As a parent, I feel torn between following rules and protecting my child’s wellbeing. The pressure around attendance can sometimes worsen underlying issues.

This year, I'm all about my kids mental health. I need to do better as a parent. There is no Mental health support at school as it feels limited and reactive. When my child struggled emotionally, help came too late. As a parent, I felt alone trying to manage issues that clearly affected learning. Schools talk about wellbeing, but practical, consistent support is still missing in many cases.

Bad weather in Glasgow

One of my experiences in school is when a boy started bullying my son in school and the school never did anything about it even when we reported it because even after school the boy would wait outside the gate for my son and even when I'm there with my son he would use swear words and curse my son but for some reasons I don't know the school never did anything about it and that really affected my son because he was now scared of going to school because the boy ganged up with some other boys in his class to make jest of him until the class teacher stepped in and said the bully was too much, she now had to report it herself, now my question is why didn't they listen to me when I kept reporting it?

As a teacher, I've been seeing a constant comparison between students amongst other students and sadly other teachers and has been damaging. My child often feels “not good enough,” despite steady progress. As a parent, it’s painful to counteract that mindset at home. School should encourage growth, not competition, yet the culture often measures success too narrowly.

I'm not happy with the school my child is at. They're very strict and i worry strict discipline policies have caused unnecessary stress for my child. It's just the beginning of the new year and minor issues feel over-punished, creating fear rather than learning. As a parent, I worry that discipline sometimes prioritises compliance over understanding. These experiences have made my child more anxious and less willing to express themselves openly at school.

Hello everyone, this week is very cold and rainy in Leeds . I hope everyone is doing well

Today has been wonderful day the weather 🌦️ nice and bright here in Glasgow, I hope everyone is doing fine today.

Despite challenges, one caring teacher made a huge difference for my child. Feeling understood and encouraged changed their attitude toward school. As a parent, it reminded me how powerful individual educators can be. Even within a flawed system, compassion and genuine interest can transform a child’s experience.

My child has faced a lot of discrimination directly and indirectly from our neighbors and sometimes from school.

My son was lied against while playing on the backyard with other children 2 to 3 times leaving him in tears so I have to stop him from going out to play again.

In school sometimes ago, my child was always coming home with complaints of other children bullying him on the playing ground and teacher looking away as if they did not notice it and when he reports, teacher asked him to deal with it.

My son is 10 (nearly 11) and is neurotypical. He really does not like school and some days it is a real struggle to get him to go, I think this is for a few reasons. Mainly he does not find school stimulating enough for him, he constantly says its 'boring' and they teach him stuff he already knows (he is and has always been at the top end of the class) he is now in a straight P6 class but in the past few years he's been in composite classes and they tend to focus the work on the lower level of working so I feel he is not being pushed enough to his full potential and also despite the curriculum for excellence and supposedly making education fit the child, this does not happen...EVER! (I have 3 grown up children and never once did they get the choices they wanted instead being made to take classes that fitted the system instead) the children have to fit the education and if they don't it becomes a 'problem'. It's one of my huge bug bears about the current education system and when the CfE first came in I got really excited thinking things would change and kids would get a chance to shine and be challenged but in reality nothing much has changed, its disheartening and pretty typical of governments now......all talk without real action!