Last Thursday afternoon I discovered that the very next day was going to be a Music Festival at Arden’s preschool (a.k.a. one of the kid’s dad’s grunge band would be playing a couple of songs) and that families were invited to have a picnic lunch with their kids after the “show”. Apparently I missed two prior emails on the matter, or maybe I just subconsciously ignored them. Either way I wasn’t winning Dad of the Year for not knowing/remembering about this epic event. But the school wasn’t winning any awards in my book either for scheduling a picnic in the middle of a full day of school. It’s one thing to schedule these things on a half-day (and God knows they have enough of those there) when you have to bring your kids home after the event, but when the kids are this young and you’re supposed to go there, eat lunch and then abandon them again it’s not only disruptive, but it’s also traumatic for some of the kids, especially when some of the kids do get to go home. Arden wasn’t one of them.
Sure she pleaded and begged to come home, but I could tell Alex was due for a mammoth nap and I wasn’t gonna miss out on that, plus the school has so many days off between “holidays” (like Flag Day) and bullshit “in service” days that I pay for, I was determined to get my monies worth. Though I have to admit that Arden’s pleas did start to thaw my cold heart but fortunately her teacher convinced her to stay so I didn’t have to feel too bad about my decision.
Anyway, after my “discovery” the day before, I asked Arden about the picnic and she said in her politest voice, “Daddy, would you and Alex like to join me for lunch at school tomorrow?” No. But of course this melted my heart and I said, “Of course.” And then Arden went up to Jen and said, “Maybe if I ever have school on a weekend you can come too, Mommy.” Jen turned to me and said, “Okay, there’s no way on earth I’m missing this thing.”
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