I was writing a post about a discipline issue I had with my 6-year-old son last night when I got a call from the school. I was about to hit “publish” when the voice from after-school care on the other line said, “We have him signed up to be here today. But he’s not here.”
And then, “Could someone have picked him up? A grandparent? An aunt?”
No. My voice went into panic mode. My co-workers saw me stand up and grab my purse and keys. While on the cell phone with one person at the school on one side of the campus, I used my desk phone to call the school office.
I asked if he could have been put on the bus by mistake instead of taken over to after-school care. “Do you know the bus number?”
No. So they had to look it up. It was only seconds, but it felt longer. Then the answer came. It’s Tuesday. He’s in art club at the school in another room.
I was thinking it wa
s Wednesday. If I’d remembered it was Tuesday, I wouldn’t have panicked. The regular after-school teacher is getting married this week and she knows the schedule. But she’s not there today and the sub did not know of my son’s one-day-a-week change to the schedule.
Forget the post on discipline. Let me just show you the heart-shaped pizza I made my kids last night because I love them - even if they don’t always make good choices or say things like, “Mommy I don’t like you.”
And I was dearly reminded of that today.
