Picture it. It’s 8:00 in the morning. I’ve been up for an hour already with my smalls. The kids are in full riot mode and I’m tearing around the house trying to get everyone’s school stuff ready. Only 25 minutes until the bus is coming! And then the phone rings. It’s Rigatoni’s nursery school. His teacher very happily and cheerfully tells me that because the busses are cancelled (WHAT?!?!) that the nursery school is closed today too. I thank her and hang up the phone. I feel something inside my head break and start oozing. I can feel it, really, and it’s creeping me out. Another snow day? Already? I’ve not even recovered from the last one yet.
I look outside, okay, yes, it’s snowing. But notthat badly. That’s it. I’m driving the boys to school. I stop briefly to whine to Mr. KB and then it is full steam ahead. Snowpants, boots, coats, hats, backpacks – go, go, go! Don’t want to be late! I strap the youngest two into their car seats as the older two snap on their seat belts and we’re off.
Five minutes later, I’m pulling into the school’s parking lot. There are a handful of snow-covered cars. The yard is devoid of screaming, hyper, playing children. It’s quiet and eerie, but these children, my children are going to school today. Don’t even try to stop us.
We spot three other children being dropped off by similarly shell-shocked, crazed-looking mothers. Hey, I recognize those kids! I send my beautiful, rowdy boys to catch up with their friends and watch as they all disappear through the heavy front doors. Success! My brain stops trying to escape from my head. I take a deep breath. My Monkey and my Donut are at school. Ms. Moon and Rigatoni are still secured in their car seats (in the much inferior-to-ours minivan rental, no less). My world is back in balance as I leave the school parking lot.
They (whoever “they” are, but in all likelihood they are soul-less, heartless, childless zombies) tried to tilt my world with a snow day, the second in as many weeks (and which, looking out the window now, was completely unnecessary, further supporting that it was done only to mess with us), but I outsmarted The Man. Ha!
Your move, York Region District School Board. Your move.
What about you? Do you live for snow days or do you move mountains to make sure your kids get to school? I mean, an education is the most important thing we can give our kids, right? *grin* If you have young children and do keep them home for snow, what do you do with them?