Not Another Tummy Ache

I've been meaning to write about this. It's like confession, or something, this blog stuff.

So, recently L brought her report card home. When your child is in first grade, this is a pretty exciting thing for the parent. Just like you love to sit down with their teacher at parent/teacher conferences. You just love to hear someone else say good things about your child. You don't dread it like I imagine you will when they are in middle school or high school.

So, as soon as I can catch a moment without interruption, I sit down to read it. It draws me in like a good book. I read everything. I just can't get enough of it. There are X's and +'s everywhere showing that she is getting this stuff. That things are "Strongly In Place" and "Developing". No "Needs Developing" anywhere to be seen. Everything that was a "Developing" last term is now a shining "Strongly In Place". She excels in Work ethic, Science, Art, and all the Character Traits. Momma is proud. I can't wait to show this baby off to all the grandmas!

Then I see it. I almost miss it. In the right hand corner there's the little Attendance box. The first term she had 1-1/2 absences and 2 tardies. This last term, she had 6 absences and 34 tardies! 34 tardies? Ouch, that really hurt to see that. I can't imagine that we've had six absences, but my girls are good at the tummy aches, and momma's a Nervous Nelly, so I can imagine that is probably spot on. But thirty-four tardies? I am so embarrassed and ashamed (I need a detention), because this is none of her and all of me. I'm the one that wakes her up, gets her going and drives her to school. I'm the one that makes her tardy. I want to blame it on the fact that she walks slow as molasses. I want to blame the fact that it takes us ten minutes to pick out the perfect color cereal bowl and then fight with our sister for ten minutes more, because we've changed our mind. I want to blame the fact that my girls hate everything I pick our for them to wear, even though they loved it the night before. That it's like pulling teeth getting them to pick something else out that fits their criteria. That the dog literally needs a bath two minutes before we head out the door, cuz it never stops raining in Oregon and our back yard is a swamp. I almost want to say, "But everyone else does it," because I actually do have to wait in line to drop her off. I want the blame to be somewhere else. But she is seven and can't drive yet. Plus, I'm the mom. I know better.

We have a little name for how late we are in our family. We call it "Buzo Time". I have never hated Buzo Time so much in my life, cuz, usually I can blame my hubby. At some point I'm probably goint to be able to blame him for these tardies, but at the moment I can't find anything. I'm just wondering why didn't the school send me a note? Maybe give me a little head's up? You know, school starts at 8:00, not 8:01. They send you notes home for everything else, don't they? Man, I'm still trying to pass the blame. Sad. Well, my dad always told me that if you can be ten minutes late, you can be ten minutes early. That is a solid bit of wisdom. I should write it down.

As you can probably imagine we haven't been tardy since. You can bet we won't be tardy the rest of the year too. But now the tummy aches--that's a whole other story.