This school year, I’ve discovered that for absolute certain, the moms who told me that life only becomes crazier when you’ve not only got kids in school but in elementary and middle (then on to high school, of course), totally know what they’re talking about. None of these women did it in a condescending manner, like I had no clue what was lying before me in the near future, they were just trying to tell me to enjoy the elementary years. Kinda like how moms (dads too) who have all their sweet babies at home and aren’t having to deal with the little life hurdles that greet every school aged child upon entering school, may not realize how even though little ones are tiring, there’s a whole new tired awaiting them. And that one at times, can also tire your mama’s (daddy’s too) heart.
Yes, the past couple of years have been a challenge during holiday parties when I was racing back and forth between the two classrooms, similar to the Brady Bunch episode where Peter meets his doppelganger at school and they try to pull off two separate dates that run anything but smoothly. My classroom party hopping did go smoothly even though it was a constant watch of the clock for me. This year, I’ll only have one party to contend with, which is nice but, it’s kinda a big but, ha, I’ll need to figure out how to pick up Little Lady at school and then fly into Little Red’s classroom on my broom with Little Man in tow. Ha.
Last week, we had Little Red’s conference and immediately after, jetted off to Little Lady’s conferences. Oh the days of one 15 minute conference with one teacher. I did not appreciate you enough. At Little Lady’s school, the teachers were set up in the cafeteria in blocks of who teaches what. For example, Little Lady’s literature, world civ and science teacher, were all seated at a long table where the plan was for the teachers to conference with one family at a time, all three of them simultaneously contributing to the conference with the parents or guardians. Well, if this is your first rodeo, you don’t know that. You’re used to one on one conferencing and thinking outside of that box . . . mind blown! Ha. We newbies (and there were plenty of us!) waited for whichever teacher was available first, then when finished, would go back to the chairs and wait in line for the next teacher we needed to conference with. Oy. When we’d seen five of the seven teachers in an hour, Little Man was out cold in my arms and since more humans were filling the gym, we chose to split, deciding to swing by the following day for the last two conferences.
Oh holy night. It was such a smaller crowd that afternoon! Little Lady, Little Man and I waited maybe three minutes before we spoke with the math teacher and walked right up to the choir teacher. Note to self: next year attend conferences on the second day. After this, we hit up the Book Fair. We arrived home with only being gone a grand total of 40 minutes. Awesome. My fellow parents of kinda wee ones, appreciate the simplicity of the one (or two, three), 15 minute conferences. Giddyup!
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