Slow on the Ball?

School is in again. We hear the bell from the elementary school up the street, and when the kid hears it, he always says: Dinner time! It's funny.  Even if you're not in school or have kids in school, you still notice it; there are parents doing hurried maneuvers in their cars to get their kids in on time, there are more students crowding the buses and spacing out with their phones, suddenly teenagers resurface and loiter casually in the parks, and community centers start their new programming. There's a burst of energy all around.

I missed the "did you sign your kid up for some classes?" frenzy. Oh, well. I was a bit slow on the ball on that one. Didn't get online at exactly 9am when the swimming registration opened, didn't stand in line in June to get in the September gymnastics classes, didn't remember my password to sign in for music classes.... Poor kid. I'm not sure if it was laziness or just sincere denial that fall was upon us. I think it might be partly rebellion...

It reminds me of when I was pregnant and everyone made a point of asking me if I had put the kid's name down on some daycare list and shockingly looking at me when I said I hadn't as if I had already failed at being a good parent. You know, the kind of parent that thinks years ahead and stands in a snow storm to get on the list of the "super-supremo daycare" to win brownie points with the peers. "Oh yes, we got in because we put junior's name down for  "Little Lucky Rainbow Teddy Bear Daycare" the day after conception. I got up at 5am with my positive pee-stick in my pocket to be the first at the door. Thank goodness, because, where else can you find an all-wood toy, child-centered, organic snack, multi-lingual daycare with caregivers who are not only professional musicians and singers, but also sew all the uniforms by hand with organic bamboo grown in the daycare garden.? And all for only $4000 a month?"

Am I missing the point? Am I supposed "fight" for my kid's "education"? Is it just a fact of life these days? Maybe it is. My mom told me that when I was a kid, she would get up early on registration day to get to the community center and sign me up for swimming lessons. So maybe this is not new. I wonder if we, the parents, are in a hurry to see our kids learn new things, partly because it's so much fun, but also because it feels good to be proud of our kid when they accomplish something new. I can't tell you how impressed I was to see my two year old crack eggs without any shell bits falling in the bowl, but does it mean I need to sign him up for cooking classes? If I don't sign him up for any classes, does that make me a bad mom? Am I not maximizing his learning potential? I don't know. I did, however, remember to renew our membership to the Aquarium. So at least there will be snack time with the baby-lugas. (belugas)

a first day of school with my brother