becomingkate

 So, Sunday was my son's birthday party.  As expected we only had 2 kids.  Actually, we were expecting 3, but you know when kids say they'll come to the party and they never ask their parents.  I think that's what happened with the girl around the corner.  She said she was coming, but uhhh...forgot to give her mom a heads up about that.  LOL

So I'm just a little pissed that only 2 kids out of the 20+ kids he invited came.  He invited his whole class (19) and some kids on the bus (I'm not sure how many).  Either my son is causing kids to not like him at school and no adults are giving me a heads up on this behavior, or people don't know how to read an invitation or RSVP.  

My son won't tell me crap about his day.  I trust (or I thought I did) his teacher, recess monitors and other adults at school to make me aware of any behavior problems that are hindering his social life.  Because I'd understand if mostly boys came, or if a bunch of people said they can't make it, but nobody calling at all?  We got two people who said they couldn't come.  The two who came told me they would.  It leads me to hope that most parents just didn't even call.  I'd rather think the parents dropped the ball on this one, than think that nobody likes my son.

That's not to say that I'd be in denial if there were signs that my son wasn't making friends.  I'd totally get on it and help him pick up some qualities kids look for in friends (fairness, sharing, taking turns being a leader).  But like I said, he doesn't tell me anything is wrong and I'm not getting notices from the teacher.

Since we only had 2 moms at the party I got the chance to hear what they thought about the bomb threat a couple weeks ago.  They both said they were happy with how it was handled.  I still am not.  I never again want to wait a half hour to find out if my son is okay (although I'm in for years of excuses for why he didn't call me to say he was where he was supposed to be) and then another half hour until he gets home.  One mom said she found out it only took 3 minutes to evacuate the school which is pretty impressive considering they have kindergarten up to 5th grade.  She pointed out that instead of calling us, they were caring for our kids and that most kids weren't scared, they just thought it was a fire drill (even though they walked to the middle school).  I guess it was much scarier on our end than it actually was.  

My son got his next karate belt, he's gradually going to join the bigger kids class since he just turned 7, and is soon signing up for the black belt club, where he gets a nice black uniform and some weapons like a bo stick and something called kamas, which are like small scythes (not real blades though).  He gets to practice new moves and techniques with these weapons.  We were going to wait until January to sign him up for this but we found out if we sign up in November we get a discount.  We also signed him up for 2 years at karate.  He really likes it and says he wants to stick with it forever.  This is the best thing we have done for him, so far.  He's learned a lot about discipline and self control (although sometimes he still has a ways to go!).

 I've typed out this story to a number of people online, but I think I'm ready to do it again.

Yesterday, my son's bus was late getting him home in the afternoon.  We were getting worried when it got close to 10 minutes late, and I kept calling the school, only to get a busy signal, and no answer from some moms I know who have kids in my son's school.  Finally, we got an automated call from the school.  Everyone was fine, but there had been a bomb threat written on the wall in one of the bathrooms.  My son's bus was an hour late.  They hadn't even told him anything. He said they all walked down to the middle school which is around the corner from my son's elementary school.  They had to stay there for a while, and this all happened close to dismissal time, so I guess they were late getting back to the buses and that's why he was an hour late getting home.

I'll never forget sitting there by the window, waiting for the bus, wondering.  Was there a shooting? an explosion?  A bus accident?  Once I couldn't get through to the school, I knew it had to be big.  One bus getting in an accident wouldn't tie up the phone lines for half an hour.  And then I was angry that they hadn't called us sooner.  I know their priority was making sure everyone was safe, but not sending out an automated phone call until half an hour after most kids are home?  Almost an hour after dismissal time?  They didn't even tell us what time the buses finally did get out of there, so we would know what time to expect our kids home.  I know it's impossible to think of everything.  But I would think, if I were a parent getting this automated message, what would I want to know?  

And finally, who the fuck writes a fake bomb threat on the wall at an elementary school?