Why do they call you "Amy Do"?

"Possibilities"

When I was in high school my mother was in college. This happened to my kids too, except that in my kids' case I did not march into their high school health class and student-teach for 12 weeks. Maybe it was only 8 weeks. I don't remember exactly, but hey, it was a super long time ago.

I remember that she taught a unit on stress. I remember one day she asked my class what caused them stress, and the other kids started calling out things and my mom would repeat what they said, and maybe she was writing it all down on the board. I remember that one of the popular girls replied, "my mom ragging on me" caused her stress, and my mom said, "mothers nagging", which is not what that girl said, and proved to my adolescent self how particularly out of touch my mom truly was.

The other kids could tell my mom was pretty cool and so they failed to see what was so catastrophic about my situation. Of course they couldn't see it; their moms were not in our school. Even after thoroughly searching my memory I cannot come up with a single instance in which my mom embarrassed me in front of my classmates in our health class. I don't remember her ever calling me any nicknames in school, and I've had many, including "Amy Do".

She is a pretty cool mom, after all.

My Teacher Calls Me Sweetie Cakes
My teacher calls me sweetie cakes.
My classmates think it's funny
to hear her call me angel face
or pookie bear or honey.

She calls me precious baby doll.
She calls me pumpkin pie
or doodle bug or honey bunch
or darling butterfly.

My class is so embarrassing
I need to find another;
just any class at all in which
the teacher's not my mother.

--Kenn Nesbitt