Making a Break for It
Cost of two bottles of Children’s Advil : $18
Cost of new thermometer at 4:45 a.m.: $12
Cost of Urgent Care per child; $20 x 2
Cost of Prescriptions per child: $20 x 2
Cost of bottle of S2 wine to survive kids having Strep Throat: $27.95
Cost of escaping with kids to the beach to blow it all off: Priceless
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You Work Today?
When we decided to put the kids in Two Way Bilingual Immersion (Spanish), we knew things would be different in some ways for our kids in Kindergarten. Most parents I respect in the neighborhood opposed the program at our school — it made me sad to challenge them with my own beliefs on my children receiving a bilingual education. I listened to every argument from my wise, experienced friends, and, in the end, still supported the program.
I knew, for example, that it was very likely that my children would not be taught to read English until 3rd Grade (Thing 1 is reading now in English on a 2nd grade level and reading Spanish 1 books); we knew that our kids would be put in class with the less fortunate kids; we knew our test scores wouldn’t help the school any. Hard decision, to say the least. We went for it.
What we were not expecting were lessons that have taught not just Thing 1 and Thing 2, but have taught me and LaGringa some lessons in humility and grace that everyone could use a shot of every now and again.
Every day when I drop the kids off, one mom asks me, “You Work Today?” and every day, I say, “No,” (slightly embarrassed). Every day she says, “Maee-bee-tomorrow,” encouraging me. I don’t have the nerve to tell her I don’t work by choice, that we can afford for me to not work, that I am occasionally “consulting” — WTF is consulting to her?
Every day I reply, “Are you working today?” And every day she tells me about her night. She cleans office buildings in the middle of the night while her child sleeps with a neighbor. She returns home in time to see him wake, make him breakfast, take him to school. After she drops him, she sleeps for 3 1/2 hours. Then she is there, at the gate waiting for him to get out of school. She walks. No car.
Today I peeled into the school parking lot to drop the Things a bit late. She saw my car and said, “You are working now! You have a CAR?!” Her sincerity brought me to tears. She had believed that because I walk the kids to school that I didn’t have a car and, she thought, like her, it was hard to get work with no car. She was thrilled for me.
I watched my girlfriends leave the lot in the Volvos, Lexus SUVs and the beloved Honda Odysseys, en route to the grocery store, gym, yoga, coffee with a girlfriend. This woman looked at me so kindly as she walked back toward home and said, “Now maybe you work today!”
I will work today. I will work on remembering how blessed I am.
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dear god
Dear God,
I hope you’re doing well. Thanks for the awesome summer and the incredible kidlets and and family. All’s good down here. Kindergarten is fine, except for that one little hiccup on the second day of school and we’re really loving Spanish Immersion, even if the kids can’t understand a thing, but hey, they didn’t understand a word at their Hebrew preschool either. Leg-up, I say.
Anyway, the house is good, even though the disposal and dishwasher don’t work which is kind of a mind-trip since this is only my third week as a nearly stay at-home mom. Are you testing me, God? Because I think you won the last round when I didn’t know how much bleach goes in the wash and poured it all over my khakis (stay at home moms wear khakis).
Thanks, God for the awesome job you worked out for La Gringa. She really loves it. We now truly embrace the goodness of mobile porn like never before. But trust in her, truly, that if there is entertainment beyond porn to be found, La Gringa will make it happen. Before you know it, those booby videos will be slapstick somethingruther instead and that will please you, I’m sure.
I’ve got one small request (well, beyond helping me figure out the whole smudges on the baseboards thing), can you please, since she claims to speak to you in tongues, go tell your loyal follower Sarah Palin to step off my jock? In fact, can you help her find her way to, um, I don’t know, Russia (since she can see it from Alaska), or even um, something a little more up her alley, like how about Steve Irwin’s old job? She could be the Barracuda Hunter. She’d like that. And so would I.
Oh and one more thing, God, I think you’re cool for doing this whole Women Can Have it All thing. It’s really been an eye opener, um, sort of. WWMMD (What Would Mary Magdeline Do)?
Amen.
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Highlights from the First Day
1. Thing 2 stood at the door screaming, “Bye Mom, I’m going NOW to Kindergarten!” She did that for about a half-hour.
2. The class indeed is 100% in Spanish. The kids are already asking what this and that mean in Spanish. The word of the day? Helado! We got the kids ice cream sundaes at 31 Flavors after the first day today. (a nod to our own childhood special occasion place).
3. Thing 1 was a little shaky, but confident. His teacher is gorgeous, kind and smart. She’s perfect for him. He’s got three friends from preschool in his class.
4. Thing 2 found the most scared child around almost instantly and plastered herself to the girl. When the kids left the room, she took the crying girl by the hand and kept telling her, “Mommys always come back, don’t cry.” Later, when I praised her for her kindness, she smiled at me and told me, “That’s my job, mom.”
5. The Things teachers have very different styles. Somehow I expected a lot to be the same. One gave a PPT presentation while the other artistically floated between languages and conversation. I learned that not even the field trips will be the same — I’ve got a lot ahead of me as chief mom.
6. The Things were EXHAUSTED after just a couple of hours. They are hankering for school tomorrow already and have picked out their clothes.
7. It takes about 25 minutes to walk to school leisurely; a lot longer than I thought it would. Good to know!
I tried to let go gracefully today, but I paled in comparison to my children who took every moment of change from teachers to new rules, clothes and friends. Today is a day I will never, ever forget.
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Side Gigs
