The important First-Day-Of-School (FDOS) has passed.
With its first-day outfits, hair dos, school supplies,
shoes, and angst.
And pictures of the same.
And now we take stock.
To store away for the next FDOS . . .
My good friend, Betty (I do hope she doesn’t mind me calling
her Betty!) has three kids of her own.
And she fosters babies.
Tiny ones.
I know. She’s my
hero, too.
Her kids attend two different schools.
Neither within walking distance of their home.
Her FDOS takes planning:
1. Stay up till midnight, getting FDOS supplies
sorted, labelled and stowed.
2.Up at 6:00 AM.
3. Shower and makeup.
4. Babies (she has two) up and bathed and changed
and fed.
5. Kids up and dressed.
6. Kids kitted out for FDOS.
7. Kids in the car.
8. Drop off kid #1.
9. Drop off kid #2.
10. Home again by 8:30.
11. Have baby #2 ready for pick up by care worker at
8:32.
12. And breathe.
See? Planning.
And she did it. All of it.
She’s supermom. Or the close earthly equivalent.
Feeling happily accomplished, she set her four-year-old to
playing, parked baby #1 beside some toys and began to tidy the kitchen.
Then she opened the freezer.
And discovered the breakfast she had been going to feed her
school kids.
No wonder she had managed to get everything done.
SHE HAD FORGOTTEN TO FEED HER FAMILY!!!
All sense of triumph drained away in an instant.
She felt horrible. She had sent her children to school with
empty stomachs.
Okay, yes, they did have a good-sized morning snack.
And an even bigger lunch.
And throughout the summer, they had never wanted breakfast
before 10:00 AM.
But still . . .
When Betty told me this story, we laughed.
Betty tells it well.
And hindsight is often really funny.
But it got me thinking. (I do that sometimes.)
About Betty’s to-do list for her FDOS.
And how she had done it. Almost.
It made me tired.
Yep. One breakfast out of the year forgotten . . .
I still think she’s amazing.
Oh yes! I would have done this, but my kids wouldn't let me. In self-defense of my fridge being raided and sucked dry, I always made breakfast and had it on the table before my kids could even think to raid the fridge! ...But then I had hired men most of the time, and they definitely would not let me forget.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Chris
See another supermom!
DeleteShe IS amazing.
ReplyDeleteAnd I laughed when she realized that she'd not fed the kids. :-) At least there were snacks later!
Pearl
Snacks fix everything!
DeleteShe is absolutely amazing!
ReplyDeleteWe know heroes when we see them!
DeleteIt's a wonder no one mentioned breakfast to her.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I thought! My kids would have been all over that!!!
DeleteShe IS amazing! And efficient, and fast, and organized ...
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel her pain, at least a bit. On the FDOS for my firstborn, I forgot to send a recess snack with him. At our house we ALWAYS had a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack - it was an ingrained part of our eating pattern - and I just pictured him being hungry for the next two hours until he came home for lunch. I wouldn't eat until I could feed him, that's how guilty and awful I felt :)
Ah, Guilt! How we obey thee!
DeleteI think she's amazing too! And awwww. There have been two days this school year so far that I've sent my son to school without breakfast. He never wants to eat until it's time to leave. His breakfast sits there, at the table, and he has no interest in it. Until I tell him the bus is coming. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThat's me! The minute I have to fast for something (ie. doctor) that's when I'm suddenly starving! Ditto for drinking. Tell me I can't do something and then there's nothing else I want to do! Hmm . . . I think we're on to something here . . .
DeleteA definite superwoman! One slip-up doesn't really count.
ReplyDeleteExactly! She needs to do that now and then to convince the rest of us she's still human!
DeleteExactly! She needs to do that now and then to convince the rest of us she's still human!
Deletewow! She is super organised.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised the kids didn't ask for it.
The breakfast.
I had it easier because my kids all went to the same school.
That was the most surprising part of the story. My kids never would have let me get away with it. . .
Delete