Tardy

Remember how once upon a time I managed to get Liesel to school on time? She was never late, not even once. Then Sydney was born and the weather turned insanely cold. If I put Sydney in her snowsuit while I bundled up Brigitta, she was dripping in sweat within minutes. If I tried to get Brigitta bundled up first, she would take everything off and leave it all strewn about the house. And they seemed to have an agreement that one or both of them would have an acid blowout just as we headed to the car.

My hands were so full, Liesel had to take responsibility for getting ready for school on her own (dressed, lunch packed, backpack ready to go, etc.). My life changed when she learned to tie her own shoelaces. However, Liesel can be a dreamer and many times I found her prancing around in her room as the clock ticked by. Despite my warnings she'd be late if she didn't hustle, she often took her sweet time. I decided to take the tough love approach and just let her be late.

Liesel's teacher knew all about our situation and understood completely. At our parent teacher conference she told me it really didn't seem to bother Liesel in the least and mentioned I might receive a letter about it from the office as they are required to send them. She urged me to not worry about it and just throw it away. Well, the letter arrived detailing Liesel's 20 tardies. 20! If you take out all the times she was late by 2 minutes or less, that number goes down to 7. I glanced at the reasons Liesel had given the office secretary for her lateness:

Oh how I got a laugh out of this! For the record, I never made Liesel late because I "had to put on chapstick." And the time Liesel was late for "jet lag" she was actually on time, but she purposely dragged her feet going to the door just so she could use the term "jet lag." She thought it was fun to say!

New goal for next school year: get my act together again.