<p>Middle school volleyball tournament, another mom & I doing French braids on the entire team discovered lice in half the heads, including the coach’s daughter, sure glad I was being really careful washing and all prior to the discovery :(</p>
<p>One time my DD had a slumber party, 4 girls in her bed. A couple fo days later I learned 2 of them had lice, ironically that very night the after the party the in-laws slept in DDs big bed- yes the sheets were clean, but I had not washed blankets/quilt/pillows/stuffed animals/etc…they never reported lice, but I was cringing!</p>
<p>My youngest is a freshman in college. I definitely don’t miss the emotional and physical pain caused by poor high school athletics coaching. My kids were among the best in the school at their sports in spite of their coaches. </p>
<p>I don’t miss my kids’ legitimate complaints about their many ridiculous homework assignments which taught them nothing.</p>
<p>Another incredibly difficult thing was coordinating meals with after school and evening activities, coupled with the fact that my kids never had cars. We couldn’t afford all that extra expense, so I did most of the chauffeuring. It seems like I was always cooking things ahead of time or rushing madly to make a meal, and everyone ate at different times. And everyone likes different foods. Not like the old days, when mom made a meal, and you ate it or went hungry. It ended up that I would cook for H and myself, and if the kids wouldn’t eat it, they’d fix things for themselves. But that made more mess. I’m just glad it’s over!</p>
<p>I won’t miss constantly telling them to “Hurry up! Hurry up!” in the morning as they get ready for school! </p>
<p>My younger son (age 15) is the slowest thing in the world in the morning. He is incapable of getting ready on time. What ever will happen to him in college when he has to actually get to class on time by himself? I know … I know … he’ll be late a few times then finally learn the hard way. It’s so hard to back off and let them fall on their face a few times on their own.</p>
<p>Besides the late night requests, it will be nice to be over the stage where your kid is assigned to bring a specific thing. I remember one time I was assigned to bring homemade trail mix. Other people were assigned to bring things like a 2 liter bottle of pop ($1.09) or a bag or pretzels. I spent about $15 on trail mix ingredients.</p>
<p>OMG, cottonwood, how did I miss mentioning that one! Among D’s 10 pm requests: a live bug for English class (H was mad as h*ll when he heard that one; I simply took a jar from the recycling, went on the front porch and caught a moth - it was a big hit with the teacher).</p>
<p>With all due respect, I think my daughter’s late night request will beat everyone else’s: “I have to come to school tomorrow dressed like Clara Schumann.”</p>
<p>D once volunteered to bring in home made gnocchi for some heritage thing in second grade! S always signs up to bring the napkins. Gotta love the boys!</p>
<p>^^^Clara Schumann!! Hysterical! (Although I would have just about cried at the time)</p>
<p>missypie, that was great! I can’t stop laughing, because I recall scrambling for something like that - D needed to look like Edgar Allan Poe for her sixth grade project presentation. Another request that knocked my socks off: D needed a ham for whatever stupid re-enactment they were doing in one of her HS classes. And of course, she only remembered about it at 11:30 pm when she already changed into her pajamas. The grocery store was closing at midnight…</p>
<p>How on Earth do these teachers come up with such assignments?</p>
<p>S is only a sophomore, but I know I won’t miss FUNDRAISING! Candles, cookie dough, wreaths, dances, car washes, casino bus trips, raffle baskets, wrapping paper, frozen pizza…you name it, we’ve sold it, and I am so over it!</p>
<p>I was just thinking today about those “surprise” needs for the oddest or least convenient things! I actually have a very clear memory of the look on my mother’s face when I cruised into the kitchen, headed out the door to first grade and announced “Oh, I need a milk carton for school today.” Our milk came in bottles!</p>
<p>(And then I suppose there were mothers with cartons who had to pour the milk into a pan!)</p>
<p>I do feel fond about the last-minute “heritage food” requests since we managed to produce some Scottish shortbread that was a big hit with a cranky teacher and so I felt heroic.</p>
<p>The prior ones here about a ham and Clara Schumann made me laugh out loud. </p>
<p>We had to come up with outfits for Ben Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt over the years. I would have no idea what to do for Clara Schumann!</p>
<p>I am so glad to be done with club soccer fund raising. I hate smelly candles and despised having to buy or sell them. And we sold farm raised mum plants. When I picked up the few dozen to deliver they were full of mosquitoes and filled my truck with them. I am also glad to be done with elementary and middles school band concerts.</p>
<p>I do miss making Halloween costumes, it turned out to be a useful hidden talent I didn’t know I had.</p>
<p>I was very glad to be done with arbitrary and demeaning band directors. Bit my tongue for years when one in particular would berate the students with language I didn’t permit my kids to use (at least in my hearing!). I wanted to object to the principal but kids told me it would backfire as he made fun of the “crybabies” who had parents who tried to change the culture.
Laughing about the Clara Schumann costume. We did Indira Ghandi at 10 PM - Walmart was open, thank heavens, and had some cheap fabric to fake a sari.</p>
<p>It was only this past October that I had a group of 10th grade girls in my kitchen making African food for Culture Day. I told them about my sister’s boyfriend who had visited a part of Africa where the only “food” they had for sale in the marketplace was white grubs, but the girls weren’t interested. We also found a recipe for termites (“Start with two handfuls of live termintes”) that we passed on. </p>
<p>The problem was that all the recipes came from web sites - not exactly Betty Crocker tested - so we made a lot of messes before we came up with something presentable. The drink made with mass quantities of finely grated ginger was interesting…sweet, then VERY spicey. Other than that, I couldn’t taste any of our creations, because all featured coconut, coconut milk or some kind of nut to which I am alergic.</p>
<p>And right, boys are easier. When he took that class, all I had to do was make a huge bowl of tabouleh.</p>
<p>I bet the late night shift at the grocery store is amused at the folks who race in right before closing…just imagining a scene of parent and child in jammies, running into the store, grabbing the courtesy clerk by the shoulders, “It’s an emergency. Where are your hams?”</p>
<p>mmm–how about the random Indian Guide/Brownie/etc. craft projects stuff. Once we had to send a dozen cleaned and boiled chicken bones for some “Indian” project; everytime I would cook the bones (phew!) and put out to cool and dry overnight, some would get raided and carried off by racoons and I would have to start over in order to reach a dozen! I was not the only mom who was REALLY glad when that project was over! Needless to say, I think it was a dad who chose the project…</p>