Passing "Go"
Another academic year begins. Sarah started first grade today, which is the Thursday after Labor Day. Tuesday and Wednesday we had no options except to bring her to work, which I did for most of the day Tuesday and then Wednesday afternoon. I must admit I had mighty low expectations of getting any actual work done, but she surprised me. She spent most of her time being coy and mute with my office mates, killing a whole forest's worth of paper with my three-hole punch, coloring, cutting, and playing with my desk animals, complete with intricate and dialogue under her breath. At one point, though I was actually concentrating on something and she kept interrupting...
Sarah: "Mom? Mom?"
Me: (only a tiny bit impatiently) "Just a sec, sweetie, I'm working on something."
Sarah: "I told you it would be annoying having a kid at work."
Actually she told me no such thing, nor did I tell her any such thing, so I have to conclude she's already adept at picking up the kind of unconscious nonverbal cues from her parents that will cause her to spend thousands on therapy in the coming decades.
So today was my first child-free day back at work after vacation (summary: lots of sleep, nice friends and relatives, shitty weather). Or so I thought, until I got the call from Becky's preschool asking me to pick her up because she had head lice, apparently picked up from some other filthy urchin who had been treated for them earlier this week. So off I go before lunch (not having had any breakfast due to serial meetings, HA HA!) to pick her up and swing by the ol' CVS to get some Louse-B-Gone. I figured on a fairly restful rest of the day, but things piled up in an annoyingly housewifely fashion, since this was a golden opportunity to do all those little things I'd been meaning to get to. So we went to the library, did a spot of grocery shopping, even made a photo book from iPhoto for a friend. All before dinner time. Oh the blissful ignorance....
Sarah: "Mom? Mom?"
Me: (only a tiny bit impatiently) "Just a sec, sweetie, I'm working on something."
Sarah: "I told you it would be annoying having a kid at work."
Actually she told me no such thing, nor did I tell her any such thing, so I have to conclude she's already adept at picking up the kind of unconscious nonverbal cues from her parents that will cause her to spend thousands on therapy in the coming decades.
So today was my first child-free day back at work after vacation (summary: lots of sleep, nice friends and relatives, shitty weather). Or so I thought, until I got the call from Becky's preschool asking me to pick her up because she had head lice, apparently picked up from some other filthy urchin who had been treated for them earlier this week. So off I go before lunch (not having had any breakfast due to serial meetings, HA HA!) to pick her up and swing by the ol' CVS to get some Louse-B-Gone. I figured on a fairly restful rest of the day, but things piled up in an annoyingly housewifely fashion, since this was a golden opportunity to do all those little things I'd been meaning to get to. So we went to the library, did a spot of grocery shopping, even made a photo book from iPhoto for a friend. All before dinner time. Oh the blissful ignorance....
Comments