Thursday, December 18, 2008

Oh, the Irony!

I've been terribly delinquent in blogging lately. To be honest, I've been terribly delinquent in lots of things...laundry, housework, filling jewelry orders, Christmas shopping, showering...I could go on, but it depresses me. So, I just had to post this quick funny about Hallie and then I MUST get to work! I. simply. must.

This morning on our way to school, I was "strongly encouraging" Hallie to be more responsible with correspondence from school. I'm forever finding notes about things that have already passed. To her credit, most of the time she tells me about these events and gets most of the details. But things can get a little dodgy if you rely solely on an 8 year old for information. I was trying to explain this to her. She stood firm on the grounds that "we haven't missed out on anything." She was adamant that we are completely, totally informed on all the happenings at Hometown Elementary School.

So as I dropped her off this morning via "rolling stop" in the car lane, I was not paying much attention to others around me. I was hoping if I didn't notice them, they wouldn't notice that I was wearing flamingo PJ pants, a sweatshirt and Big Joel's toboggan. (I was also praying that I wouldn't have car trouble or be involved in a traffic accident that would require me to get out of my vehicle.) As I pulled out of the school parking lot, I saw three children in "plain clothes" (not plain as in Amish, but plain as in not the standardized dress required by our district) Then I stopped at the crosswalk to allow an entire herd of children to pass...in non-standardized dress. Finally, I knew something was up when I saw my friend's kids running gaily into school wearing jeans and regular shirts. I quickly used my "Phone-a-Friend" lifeline to find out what was going on. Yes, you guessed it. Today is Free Dress day at school and my well-informed, know-it-all, "don't-worry-mom-we're-not-missing-anything" daughter who despises standardized dress MISSED it!

While this would have been a valuable life lesson for Hallie about responsibility (and arrogance), it is party day. When her normally strict, you're-in-3rd-grade-now-so-suck-it-up teacher called me, her exact words were, "Its up to you: you can teach her a lesson or you can bring her some clothes to change into since its Christmas and she's sobbing uncontrollably. I'll support whatever you decide."

Needless to say, Big Joel is on his way to school with some "plain" clothes.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are not the only ones!! I would also be on my way to the school with "non-standardized dress" and probably was in years past. Don't worry, this, too, will pass!! Cheryl

Jamie Mullins said...

Good call mom! There are plenty of opportunities to teach our kiddoes lessons, but another great lesson to teach them is GRACE in the midst of our shortcomings which is the lesson that you taught her today! :)

Ronnica said...

That's a tough call! I bet she learned her lesson anyway, though.

Kimberly Carpenter said...

sure she learned her lesson from the conversation followed by missing the memo! :) Big Joel gets to saves the day??? Make sure she knows you sent him! :) Ha!

G Pierce said...

I was so hoping that other moms take their kids to school in their PJ's and pray the entire time there is no accident. Glad to find your blog!

Anonymous said...

the phone a friend was priceless. what a great teachable momment for you and Joel and as usual you both steped up to the plate and taught her a priceless lesson of grace and understanding. I would have made my kids stay within dress code. I did ask littly boy warren several times if he was free dress tomorrow and he assured me he was but he did need a peanut free snack and drink for the am.

j said...

That is precious. You taught her a lesson in grace!!

My kids hate uniforms. I thought I would but I actually find it liberating!

Be blessed.

Jen

j said...

And I WANT a pair of flamingo pajamas. Lucky!