Meet the Teacher Day

Oh, what a morning!

I have to ask the question: When did school become so complicated?

Here's the situation . . . having grown up in a small town, I'm not used to the process of big school enrollment. We got to the school on this drizzly, rainy morning to an overflowing parking lot, and people lined up outside the building waiting to get in. We got all the kids, including the baby, into the building with a truckload of (or the baby's stroller overflowing with) school supplies.

We found the classrooms. Dropped the supplies in baskets outside the classrooms. Waited in line for twenty minutes per kid to talk with the teacher for five minutes. They asked us for a current utility bill. Huh? Why do we need that? Well, to prove you live at the address you have on the enrollment forms. Seriously?

Again, this is my small town mentality, not a direct reflection on the school itself, but who would be trying to sneak their kid into the school? Is it really that great? And why would it matter? I guess I just grew up in a place where we had one school, and everybody went there. Period. You knew who your teacher was going to be the next year because it was always the same teachers every year. A teacher retiring in our community was a BIG deal. We knew months in advance who the new teacher would be, and had probably visited their house a couple of times during the summer before we ever set foot in their classroom.

So then we had to figure out how the drop-off and pick-up routine works. We have paperwork thicker than my husband's graduate thesis to fill out. Every organization in the school wants volunteers and donations.

We are going to have to schedule our lives around their school schedule for the next thirteen years. I knew it was coming, but I thought we would be able to ease into it. Kindergarten not so bad, work up to more activities each year, but apparently they would like you to go in pedal to the metal, and don't stop until you graduate from high school.

But the boys seemed okay with the whole situation. I think they are going to like their teachers, and neither appeared to care they wouldn't be in the same class. The teachers talked with them about when they would get to see each other, and they were fine with it. When school actually starts, we'll know for sure how they are doing with the separation, but I honestly think they will be fine.

Now we just have to work on Mommy's separation issues.