Dear Schools,
Let me begin by telling you how amazed I am that you take in hundreds of children each and every day, and that you continually show up for work. For 180 days. Kudos, truly. I have no idea how you do it. You are better humans than I am.
Now that we are two full months into the school year, I wanted to share some parental thoughts that you may not be aware of, that are plaguing families in towns across America.
We don’t have any cash. There is nothing more stressful than being reminded by your child that today is spirit day for a donation/field trip money is due/class t-shirt order day seven minutes before the bus comes. These requests are usually for cash and we don’t have any. After pillaging through our child’s drawers for tooth fairy money, we are tapped out. May I propose a class or school Venmo account that parents can use to pay for everything that pops up throughout the year? Speaking for this Mama, if I could donate money to a charity so my child can wear a hat to school, the donation will be much bigger if submitted electronically than if I have to find actual paper money in my house.
Kids don’t tell us shit. This is the truth. Or if they do tell us, it’s too late. A perfect example of this is when Little Mister came home with a workbook that hadn’t been started yet.
Me: “Do you have to do anything with this?”
Him: **shoulder shrug**
Me: “Why is this coming home for the first time today? Do you have to complete any of it?”
Him: “I don’t know!”
A quick email to the teacher revealed that the kids were told to do a few pages in the workbook on Monday (today was Wednesday). My particular child looked at me like I asked him to recite the periodic table of elements when I asked him if he remembered being asked to work on this.
Unless it’s assigned to them in writing, sent home via email from teachers to parents, or stapled to their foreheads, there’s a 97% chance that what teachers are telling students in school is not making it to their parents’ ears at home. What IS making it to our ears, is who went to the Principal’s office, if the cafeteria ran out of Oreo ice cream bars and who pushed who during recess.
When a child does remember something, it’s usually at the most inopportune time:
At the bus stop: “We could bring a stuffed animal in today! Can we go get one?”
Having breakfast: “Can you chaperone the field trip today?”
Before bed: “Today parents could have come in to read to our class.”
Projects. You are looking at someone who LOVES herself a good art and craft project. When I have the opportunity to break out the glue gun, I am one happy girl. And I can appreciate the learning that goes into working on a project, creating something with your hands and mind, and showing it off. I am not looking for fewer projects! My question is this: is there any chance the projects could be smaller? Actually physically smaller. While we are putting our Amazon boxes to great use, we are running out of room to display (read: store) all of our beloved works of art. Because guess who doesn’t like to throw out projects? The kid who made them.
We parents can not thank you enough for everything you’re doing for our children.
If you need me, I’ll be gathering small bills from the bank to get us through the end of the year.
Life of kk 