What a girl's gotta do

Sarah made the Academic League team...Very proud of her. The Academic League is like Jeopardy for kids. They test the kids on their knowledge and ability to quickly answer the question correctly and those that make the team, then travel to the local college and compete with other school districts. The high school team has actually been on a local television show called Hometown High Q. Amanda and Anthony have been doing this for years now, they love it.

Amanda and Anthony have meets every other Thursday and I thought Sarah's was every other Tuesday. I remembered it was Tuesday, because I remember her mentioning it. I did not realize that it was every Tuesday. And she never actually told me when the meets were. They are held during school hours and they travel with their teams on a school bus. The only drawback to this is, they have to either take their own lunch or buy a lunch from the college, which is a flat rate of $7.

For some reason, Sarah has been telling me that I need to take her to school on those days, because her bus doesn't get there on time. Now, having taken her to school on those days, I have seen her bus dropping off the kids at the same time, she wanted me to drop her off. I've watched her brothers walk into the school while Sarah walked down the sidewalk. So, I don't quite see the logic in this ordeal.

I will also throw out there that I have been working a lot of Monday evenings. Therefore I'm not home in order for her to tell me that she has a meet the next day. She never mentions it to her dad either. Leaving me running around in circles half asleep (I get home from work by 10:30 at night and I'm usually so wide awake that I can't fall asleep before 2, sometimes 3 a.m. on those nights), trying to figure out whether she has time to pack a lunch, or give her money and making sure that I hurridly dress myself and Nathan in order to get Sarah to school on time, before the team bus leaves.

So, this morning at 8:15, she wakes me up to take her to school. By the time I focus on getting me and Nathan ready it's now 8:25....and low and behold, Sarah - who knew exactly what the day was, who knew exactly what time she had to be there, who knew exactly what she needed to do in order to get there on time, asks me what she's going to do about lunch. I said "What do you mean what are you going to do, didn't you pack a lunch?" No, she whines. "why not?" Because I didn't know what to do...."what do you mean you didn't know what to do, what are the rules when you need money for something like this?" We need to tell you in advance so you can go to the bank for money.

Uh, yeah...and your dad just went to the store last night while I was working and bought groceries, what do you think the chances are of him having any money left?" None - good guess! So now, she's scrambling around the kitchen throwing stuff in a bag while I'm zipping up Nathan's coat and walking him out to the car. As we pull up to the school, Sarah notices that the bus isn't there....they left without her, as we are now late (because of the lunch ordeal). She starts crying and screaming that she's not going to school now, because she missed her bus. Well, what the heck am I supposed to do about that?! I told her that she was going to school and she was going to get out of the van and she was going to have to remember that she needs to tell her dad in advance (since I'm working) that she has Academic League and she needs lunch money.

Hey, I have enough stuff of my own to remember doing....plus, 5 other kids that I have to do things for, I can not remember every little thing! She signed up for it....she joined the team...and now I think she needs to be responsible for the things she needs on those days. I felt bad to some degree, but I didn't feel guilty like I normally would. I can understand this and see this from her point of view, however I can not do every thing. Sometimes, kids need to remember and do things for themselves and in my opinion at her age, she is responsible enough to remember an activity that she wanted to do - especially since it's her only activity this year. I'm not riding the guilt train today.......I'm not, I tell you (with heavy heart and misty eyes).