Friday, January 10, 2014

Breakfast at Truman

Having my kids for a weekday overnight I decided to celebrate by hanging out for awhile at my 1st grader's school.  They allow parents to come anytime and eat with their children.   What an amazing morning it turned out to be.

We arrived early. My 3 and 6 year old met a 5th grader named Jasmine who seemed to be a community greeter.  She helped us find restrooms and instructed me on school policy regarding visitors.  She explained that she is almost always the first child at the school each day, arriving before most of the faculty.  She gets bored and waits in the school lobby to talk to people.

It made me think of my elementary school and how on Thursday half days all of the latch key kids gathered at the school to play kick ball because parents were working and we had nowhere else to be.  A janitor broke the rules and gave us the ball and other equipment then stayed late to collect it.  He seemed to understand.

Jasmine explained to me a complicated mess of Dad and Mom schedules, visitation and just simply far more than she should have to be dealing with.  On the positive, she has an ipod shuffle and I asked for her to list her songs. One was from "Hollywood Undead" which I actually recognized. She then proceeded to help other kids and parents as the day was taking form.

When the faculty arrived I paid $1.75 each for myself and my youngest as guests and the three of us went into the breakfast room.  Given a choice between cereal or pizza, I learned most kids prefer chocolate milk with their cereal even more than pizza for breakfast.  It was explained to me that government regulations also  required them to also take either a slice of wheat bread or a pear.

We sat down to eat and I learned that a boy named Bryce is in love with my daughter.  He had the confidence to tell me himself but as a Dad I am not ready to deal with this. I showed him respect. Then an ex-boyfriend of hers came to the bench and to break the tension luckily my younger distracted be with a need to go potty.  When we returned another girl offered to teach me how to do braids. I don't do hair. Every six months I pay $20 for a number four buzz that takes five minutes.  Professionally speaking I like 15 minutes from shower to elevator to classroom. I now have a volunteer tutor in the art of annoying little rubber bands and I am grateful for that.

After breakfast we went outside and the first thing I noticed was that if a soccer ball is available it does not matter if it is snowing, or who given race, creed, religion, or any economic circumstance that is present,  kids and adults will play.  The bell rang and I watched as my daughter followed protocol.  She stood in line at the correct door, then shouted "Dad stay with me and meet my teacher!!"

It is one thing to be proud of our children.  When they are proud of us and express wanting us in their lives it brings us secretly to tears of joy.  I encourage my friends to take a morning if you can to walk through their experience and anything else that shows you their perspective.