So I'm one of THOSE parents

I think that everyone has a certain idea of how they think things are going to be once they become a parent. I never had a better idea of how to raise children than when I didn't have any. As a teacher, I would often times find myself come up with quick and easy solutions on how to "fix" each of my difficult students. Ahhhh...the life of the ignorant.

Once I had children, I lost most of my easy fix solutions. Each of my kids were and are so different, and they've had their fair share of public humiliation (at least, for me) in the way of tantrums or screaming fits.

One thing that we often hear as teachers are how parents don't know that certain events were scheduled for certain days. "Mrs. Tiner, my mom doesn't know when the program is." "Did she get the three letters I sent out?" "I don't think my teacher gave me those letters...."

Then on Work Days, when there is no school, we always seem to have kids show up at the front door expecting to go to school, with their parents dropping them off. And the inevitable grumbling shows up in the staff lounge. "We sent out how many reminders, and announced it how many times this week? How could they not know that there is no school today. There's always SOMEBODY."

Well, today, it was my turn to get Andrew up for school. The alarm went off, I turned it off...and that's the last I remember until I woke up and saw that the alarm said 7:14. Andrew's bus comes promptly at 7:10. RATS! He'd missed the bus. So I jumped out of bed and informed Chris of the dilemma. I hopped into the shower while Chris got a sleepy Andrew ready for school. Chris defrosted the car for me while I got ready. Andrew and I jumped into the car and got to his school just a couple of minutes before it was supposed to start.

As I drove into the parking lot, I noticed that there were a TON of cars in the visitor parking. I had to park a little ways away, got Andrew out, put his little backpack on, and held his hand while we walked towards the school.

And that's when I noticed a familiar sight that did not bode well for Andrew. I saw teachers walking into the school with jeans on and Starbucks in hand. 2 minutes before the bell rings is a little late for 10 teachers to be walking into the school. And that's when I stopped one of them.

"Excuse me, is there school today?"

"No...," she said. "Idiot!" she thought.

I looked up at the reader board, and sure enough, November 25-28, no school.

So Andrew's school had ONE day this week. Odd to anyone else? We got back into the car, headed back home, I dropped Andrew off and then drove to my school, since we actually did have school today.

So I certainly had a nice taste of humble pie, and will now stick up for those poor parents who simply forget or honestly don't know that their kids don't have school, or who miss the three notes that let them know when certain events are happening. There is so much in life to keep up with! At least, that's what I'm telling myself today. :)

And on a very happy note, Andrew ended up having a great day at home, and actually ate a hot dog for dinner! Second time in the history of his life that he has eaten meat. I know that hot dogs are kind of questionable in the meat department, but hey, it's a start!