So I am being a good mommy today, volunteering in Colleen’s class, when I get a text: two friends, one I haven’t seen in months, want to do lunch. I am being rewarded for my volunteerism! Yay! As I head out of Colleen’s class, I make a costly mistake — I decided to walk a few feet further down the hall to look at Kaylee’s “student of the week” poster and peek in her class. Looking through the open door, I can see Kaylee’s face and I can tell she’s been crying. Mistake # 2: I did not dart away right then and there. Kaylee sees me, runs out the door and starts sobbing into my arms.
As I plead with her to explain what happened, I get only, “I missed you.” “I’m tired.” “I don’t know why I’m crying I’m just sad.” (Which may be true in 10 years but I’m not buying it at age 6.) Her teacher comes out and apologizes; she had been in the hall testing another student and didn’t see what happened. The substitute came out and said something about messy coloring. Aha! Now we are getting somewhere. Kaylee cannot handle criticism, and I feel in my gut this is why she was crying. But she swears up and down she’s just tired and sad. Her teacher suggests maybe she doesn’t feel well, because this is just not like her. Which is when every teacher and aide walking down the hall suddenly went into Flu Frenzy. “Does she have a fever?” “These things come on suddenly you know.” “You probably shouldn’t bring her back tomorrow either.” Kaylee begs to come home, despite her teacher’s urgings to stay at least through lunch and see how she feels (finally, a sane person!), and eventually I relent, grudgingly cancelling my lunch plans.
As I check her out at the office, they check her temperature “just in case.” 98.2, “a little feverish.” WHAT? Since when? Somehow we get out of there without getting quarantined. When we arrive home, Kaylee skips into the house and asks for string cheese on her way downstairs to watch TV. Hmm.
“You need to tell me right now why you were crying.” Sobbing again. “The teacher said my coloring was scribbliiiing!”
My lunch plans down the drain because I peeked in on her right after she was criticized. I KNEW that was it, but no, the flu the flu THE FLU! So after lunch (peanut and butter and jelly is not the same as a restaurant with friends) we are headed back to school. Hopefully we have both learned a lesson — but probably just me.
Oh, I think Kaylee may have learned a lesson, too.
Mack already came home once this year for a headache. Which I knew was induced by staying up too late watching Sunday Night Football, but the school nurse worried was “a sign of strep coming on.” Once Mack got home and realized there would be no TV, video games, or playing outside (“What am I supposed to do?” “Take a nap. People who are really sick like naps.”) he started begging me to take him back to school.
I am SOOOO impressed that you took her back to school. It would have been easier just to keep her home. I don’t know that I would have gone back out on such a yucky day.
Good mommy day for you, Erinn!
I was tempted to keep her home, but like Jill said about Mack, she eventually wanted to go back to school. I did explain that it was really important that she keep up with what her class was doing, and that you should really only miss school when you’re sick, but I think her real motivation was that she is “star student of the week” and gets to hand out folders, be line leader, etc., and it was for just ONE WEEK, which was almost over.