Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I forgot to say yesterday...

...that I think it would have been less uncomfortable to have gone ahead and dragged my belly through the mud.

There's a field trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry tomorrow, Wednesday. Connor will be out of school, but will be spending Tuesday night with a friend. Wednesday thus will be My Last Day Alone.

With Monday's experience fresh, would it really be intolerable to scrape belly and find a way to avoid being asked to be a driver?

Let's see, I can have a quiet morning at home blogging peacefully or writing in my diary, OR I can drive a vanload of shouting 5--7 year olds through heavily trafficked streets, jockey for a parking space, shepherd the minions through a busy parking lot and then keep track of them in a space crawling with people. The price for option number 1, the shame of avoiding the teacher's eyes, keeping space between us from closing, and slinking out the door before he can talk to me.

I hate these kinds of choices!

5 comments:

Lori Lavender Luz said...

Boot camp time.

1. IT'S OK TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN NEEDS if your children are safe and fed and loved. Which they are.

2. WHY DO YOU CARE WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS? Maybe they really don't even notice. At this stage of your life, what YOU think should always be more important than what people on the periphery of your life think.

There is no way I would volunteer to drive that van. The cost to myself would be too high.

Kicking your a$$.

Lovingly, of course :-).

excavator said...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Dropping to the ground and giving you 50 push-ups (eek! There's mud under there!)

Seriously though, I've got to think about a notion that came out of reading this: where my opinion of myself may be *undifferentiated* from what I *think* someone elses' is...wait a minute, I'm getting confused...

who did that musical--Oh! it was in Oliver! "I-think-I-better-think-it-out-again!" (Fagin).

Douglas W said...

Presumably all these 5-7 year olds also have parents. Presumably the teachers also drive. It's all very well for schools to rely upon the goodwill of parents to volunteer for such things - but 10 kids in a bus presumably means there are also 10 parents around somewhere. So if you're driving then the other nine are home relaxing? If the school really is so short staffed that they rely upon parents driving then they need to draw up a roster. One trip - ten parents - each parent does it once in ten months. And if there are twenty or thirty parents then that's even better - once every twenty months.

No... I would say you've contributed your share and shouldn't be expected to do it every time - unless they pay you a teacher's salary for the day!

Wordgirl said...

I'm with Lori.

I honestly would go bonkers.

Blogging and a strong cup of coffee and a little bluegrass...oh wait, that's me right now!

I think we have to be selfish with our time -- in a good way -- because it's that time that replenishes us when we are with our chlidren...because as much as we love them -- it is draining...

or is that just me?

(Insert panicked thought of unworthiness here)

See? You aren't alone.

Pam

excavator said...

Hi, Wordgirl:

"...because it's that time that replenishes us when we are with our chlidren...because as much as we love them -- it is draining...

or is that just me?

(Insert panicked thought of unworthiness here)"

GRIN

Aw, the spectre of unworthiness. It seems I'm never entirely free of that seed of doubt.

Is it what keeps us honest? Or is it a dinosaur that needs to be buried, once and for all?

Yes. They are fucking draining. And more kids are More Fucking Draining.

So there.