I wont lie. I love the start of the school year. There are some annoying tasks - like filling in three huge stacks of forms that need signing. Contact information, permission forms, lunch forms. On and on. Usually takes me hours to complete them.
Happily, this year all three of my kids are at one school - high school - and all the forms are online. Easy Breezy.
So imagine the look on my face after the first day of school when they all brought me piles of forms.
Contracts. I hate them. Every single class wants me to sign a form that I will hover over my kids and make sure they do their homework and wipe their noses. Then I have to fill in three contact numbers and an email for each class. Seriously, are you going to have some emergency in math class with my kid that you have to try four different ways of contacting me? Are teachers really going to keep these numbers handy? They couldn't use the contact information I supplied the school? Are they going to take me to court if I don't sign one of the contracts? I'm all kinds of annoyed at these.
But I slogged through my stacks until I got to even more forms, that were not contracts and permission forms.
Like an order form for a pearl necklace.
And a tuxedo shirt
And opera tickets for Rigoletto and Tosca at San Francisco Opera.
Whoa.
Turns out the twins have to dress formally for their Symphony Band concerts (it's a faux pearl necklace - but it still threw me), and they get to go with the band to see the operas.
So awesome. I almost wish I were back in high school. Almost
This year also brought some surprises in the school supply category. No longer can we raid the big office stores for colored pencils and pink pearl erasers. The supplies are considerably more boring now, and expensive - like graphing calculators and expensive textbooks.
Finally, every year I remind my kids that I'm not a delivery service. I will not deliver forgotten lunches or books or homework to school. If they forget they have to face the consequences. The exception is the very first week of school.
Minutes after their dad dropped them at school this morning, I got a call at home.
"Mommy? It's the first week of school, and I sort of forgot my biology project and I really need it! It's out on the front porch."
"All I see is an Altoids tin."
"That's it! Could you please bring it to school? Thanks mommy!!"
I can't resist it when they call me mommy. I'm also human. And it's the first week of school. So I agreed.
The one thing I should have resisted though, was opening up the tin to see what was inside.
If you can't tell, there are a bunch of pill bugs/potato bugs/roly-polys in there.
I miss middle school already.
3 people stopped folding laundry to write:
All ThREE are in HIGH SCHOOL now? When did that happen??????
Growing up my mom always complained about the forms. I understood it. But this year, my first year teaching kindergarten, I realized how much worse it is for the teachers. They get a million forms to sort and pass out to the students, they have to organize and sort through the forms to make sure the parents filled them out correctly, and then they have to chase after the parents who didn't fill out the forms. And, yes, I think some of the information is ridiculous. My parents had to sign three forms saying they read the handbook and will support their children and there were about four forms for emergency related information. It was very repetitive, but it's obviously something that the office sent out, not each individual teacher. We hate it as much as you do. : )
I love this glimpse of what is to come! :) (By the way, I went into great detail this weekend describing your wonderful crew to mine. :) So many common interests.)
Happy New School Year, ThreeUnder!
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