Last September, a woman in Kyushu killed her six-year-old son by strangling him in the toilet of a park. In her police confession, she claimed she was upset because the boy had gotten angry with her because she skipped a parent's meeting at the school. Their issues of course went far beyond that. She had an injury that left her limping and unable to perform but the minimum of physical activities. She fell into a depression because of that multipled by how her son had received a learning disabled diagnosis and was difficult to raise.
But the news struck a chord in me because on the day I found out, I had a class meeting I forgot to attend!! Well, technically I didn't forget because I didn't look at Rio's folder the night before and never saw the notice. I will now list up all the school-related screw ups I've had since September in order of calamity rating.
1) Lost their brand name winter uniforms. Met Dawn and the boys at the park, went out to eat afterwards. Never brought the bag home. Had to replace $200 worth of uniforms. Boo-hoo. This one hurt.
2) Keep messing up my volunteer days. I have to volunteer fives days in the school year. My first time, forget about it and was 10 minutes late. Next week, it wasn't my turn but still I shown up. This week, I forgot to hand in my volunteer card and had to go in early the next day to give it back. Pretty impressive record eh?
3) Keep messing up the kid's lunches. Packed lunch on a school lunch day. Put Reina's lunch in Rio's bag and forgot to put his bag in anyone's backpack. Wasn't aware Rio didn't have enough lunch money on his card. (They lent him money so he didn't starve.)
But I have handed in every notice on time, attended curriculum night on the right night, (ever mentioned I still went to a wedding a week late??) and is managing to train Rio to keep track of his homework. So hard because organizing is so alien to me.
I always try to look on the bright side. I hope some homeless person made money to buy food from the uniforms. It was charity. Though the receptionist has already clued in on how ditzy I am, she's also getting to know that I am a nice person and she's really kind to me. The teachers and the kids love me at afterschool care despite all my mishaps. And with the lunches, my kids have learned how to be flexible, respond to a crisis, etc. Each family is different but a miss meeting hardly even makes our list of calamity.
My philosophy about raising kids is exactly what Tricia's judge said about trials. "I don't strive to be perfect, just fair," had been kind of my unconscious motto. And to my heart's delight, in his Mother's day card last year, Rio wrote "I love you Mommy for being nice, fun and fair." He noticed!! Coming from a boy with a younger sibling, it's a huge compliment. I'm lucky.
