To Chaperone or Not to Chaperone, That Is the Question.

Tommy's class went on a field trip today. As field trips go this one sounded pretty fun--lunch and a show at the Broadway Palms Theater. I have done my share of not-so-very-fun field trips (the rock museum (twice!!) with the rock Nazi museum guides who clearly should not be in a job that involves children!) so I volunteered to be a chaperone for this one but I was told my services would not be needed as they had already filled the chaperone slots. Oh well. So, this week I got three days of subbing jobs instead with today being a day at home. Yesterday I found out that one of the other moms couldn't go and my friend Kathy was hoping to go but couldn't find a sitter for her kindergartner for the afternoon, so she suggested that I go. I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that I needed to be home for the day and so I offered to babysit her kindergartner instead. When I spoke to Tommy's teacher about it she was putting on the hard sell--I'm guessing because it should be a fun field trip for the parents to sit through. Unless she was hoping that I would be just the right parent for those boys that need some extra "encouragement" for proper behavior (including my own)...Anyway, I stuck to my guns and said no.

And then this morning, being the genius parents we are, we realized that they are eating lunch at this place. It truly never crossed my mind before this morning, probably because field trips don't usually involve eating anything except a bag lunch. And of course our Tomster is on his special water and carrot diet and I had to leap into action to figure out what he was supposed to eat. Thankfully there was a website for the theater and they listed the choices for the "kid friendly" buffet: hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers, pizza and macaroni and cheese. I'm hoping there are fruit choices in addition that they just didn't mention since fruit, historically speaking, isn't "kid friendly"--otherwise Tommy will be filling his belly with hamburger patties and bunless hot dogs.

It's at this moment that I suddenly was overwhelmed with thankfulness that I was not going to be a chaperone--a buffet with second graders?????????? Wow, I think I made the right decision!! Buffet means carrying a plate of food some distance while attempting to not spill it--which 7 year olds are not exactly always able to do. That's too much stress for me! If I didn't work with elementary students several days a week it would have been a different story, but this would have been like work--with a "kid friendly" buffet and no paycheck! So, I'm going to get laundry done (well, work on taming the beast anyway) and enjoy being home and maybe actually get dinner ready early tonight! (it could happen)

And I will look forward to hearing how Tommy enjoyed the play and his hamburger patties buffet.