Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Amnesiac & The Enabler

My child is extremely forgetful. We have lost so many coats, so many shoes, so many baseball hats, so many lunch kits, so many bathing suits..... I am now just buying his coats at the Salvation Army and other thrift stores because he is sure to lose them long before they're outgrown. Last week I just happened to overhear another mom (MP) remind her son to turn in his permission slip for their upcoming field trip. Field Trip? This was news to me! MP goes on to tell me that they are going to Science World and that the permission slips are due in tomorrow! So, I remind J as I drop him off that he must bring home a form if he really wants to go!

Fast forward to my arrival at his daycare that afternoon for pickup..... Yes, he has a stack of forms and notices - treat day announcements from back in February, school newsletters dated March. But no Permission Slip! Because I am now skating (or trying to skate) with his teacher, I decided to mention this to her - even though I purposely do not talk about school or my son at these practices. At any rate, the next morning SHE reminds J that he needs to bring me the form so this is how I finally got it.



Anyway, late tonight (after swimming with BP), his mother asks me if I knew it was our turn to bring baking to school for treat day tomorrow. It is now 9:40 p.m. and she is working away in her kitchen making fresh rice krispie squares because her son just happened to tell her that he needed to bring treats tomorrow - and this was just before I picked him up for swimming and just before she and her husband were leaving for their baseball game. But at least he told her!

Needless to say, at 10:10 this evening (which is also a school night), J and I can be found up at the grocery store buying chocolate chip cookies (that actually look pretty darn homemade). But he never did tell me about my baking obligation tonight!

I do realize that my "covering" or "rescuing" him out of these predicaments is just enabling his forgetfulness and is really not helping him any - so why is it that I just don't feel right about having him show up at school empty handed or missing out on things?....

2 comments:

Michelle said...

See but this time it wasn't his fault. Mrs. H never gave the forms out for this one, until yesterday. I'm good with my kid showing up empty handed. Seriously. I have three kids and need more than one night's notice. As we all know, I am NOT Martha Stewart. Also, I was too tired to go shopping again when I already had to do that for #2's preschool graduation stuff.

TrailerTrashed said...

Aha! See, I just PRESUMED that J forgot to tell me (again)! Here I thought I was going to be worse mother of the year for not being more Marthaistic... Thank you - I shouldn't have fretted after all (I guess it's part of the learning process)