Carson just started preschool last week. We are total newbies to the whole “preschool thing.” I’m barely remembering to send a change of clothes and to pack a lunch that includes all the food groups (which I *ahem* had to look up).
Since Valentine’s Day is this weekend (you’re welcome, guys, for the reminder!), his class is celebrating today. There was a sign up sheet to bring goodies and we were told to bring valentines. It never occurred to me to go above and beyond this request.
Upon dropping Carson off at school this morning, I realized I was sorely mistaken. Quite possibly, I’ve doomed Carson’s social life with my lackluster crafting skills and “it never occured to me” attitude.
After dropping Carson off at school on Tuesday, Ella and I headed to Tar-zhay to pick out some valentines to give to his classmates. I picked out a box. I came home and wrote Carson’s name in the “From” section on the card and wrote his friends’ names on the “To” section. I used a red pen! So Valentine’s Day, I thought. Then I got REALLY crafty and used the enclosed heart-shaped stickers to close the valentine! Voila! Done!
This morning, since I’d wisely chosen “chips” as my item to share (and got rid of two unopened leftover chips from our superbowl party, genius!!), I carefully chose a grocery sack in which to place the chips and transport them to school. I did choose at Tar-zhay grocery sack over a Wal-mart sack because I wanted to look a little more high class. To be really swanky, I probably should have found a grocery sack from Fresh Market.
So I was feeling good! We had valentines! We had chips! We had a change of clothes! I even remembered to include the $2.50 for the pizza party!
At school, though, my proud feelings quickly turned to that sick feeling you get when you realize your kid is the only one whose valentines SUCK and that your fancy grocery sack chip presentation is CRAP.
Other moms were carrying in boxes of individually wrapped and decorated cards and who knows what else. There were ribbons and cellophane and hearts for goodness sakes. Carson’s valentines were in a sandwich baggie! Mortified! These other mom’s snacks weren’t in grocery sacks, OH NOOOOO!, they were on heart-shaped red and pink platters. *shakes head in shame*
These other mom’s children were also not screaming, “NOOOOO! I don’t want to go to school! NOOOOO! I want to go HOME!” But that is a whole other post in itself.
Last year we didn’t do valentines because who expect a 7 month old to bring in cards? But then my son came home with a little bag full of cards, and I was full of bad mom guilt. This year the staff sent out an email reminding us that they will be celebrating Valentines tomorrow. So I have dutifully signed my son’s name to 12 cards and stuck heart stickers on them. I’m sure that there will be some crazy hand-made shit that will up the ante and make me feel the bad mommy guilt yet again.
Julia´s lastest post..Television without pity
The beauty of where we live now is that they don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day – nor does my daughter’s school make me bring in lame-o Valentines that SHE didn’t do, but rather I stayed up all frickin night to finish.
That’s about the only good thing I can think of about India right now…
BTW – none of the kids care anyway… they eat the treats if they’re filled with sugar and throw the rest of the “crap” out…
Jill´s lastest post..What A Difference A Day Makes
Um, we did Valentine’s like you did b/c I had no freaking idea what I was doing. I did tape a sucker to each valentine and thought that was good.
I just saw in the pre-school guide for next year about the food from every food group. WTF? Seriously? Why bother b/c she will NEVER eat it. We don’t have to do that yet, but I find the concept interesting. How are you dealing with it?
Oh, and it took my kid 2 months before she would stay in the class willingly. The only way it worked was b/c she gets to take a small stuffed animal with her and I think that makes her feel better. Of course, it’s just MDO and I don’t think she can do that next year for pre-school.
Shelly´s lastest post..Blah TV
Heh. Yeahhhh… my kids have only a cheap Valentine from WalMart. No candy, pencils, erasers or other crap. The kids really don’t remember who gives what, anyway. Why spend my own money on GARBAGE that will be thrown away when someone else can do it?
tracey´s lastest post..One of those posts where you THOUGHT you knew where it was going, but it took on a life of its own and you are too lazy to try to find more cohesion..
Isn’t it crazy?!?! We had our first preschool V-day party yesterday. I bought the cheap boxed cards, and brought the cheese cubes I signed up for in my grocery store PLASTIC (gasp!) bag!
Most kids did the same, but of course there were those who bagged up some swag, aka sugary junk. crazy.
Lori´s lastest post..I thought this was a kids’ flick . . .
Save yourself! Don’t let yourself get caught up in the “bring the best stuff” mania. It’s an ugly trap and it’s oh-so-easy to fall into. Think of it this way you can either a) spend hours and hours crafting the “perfect” valentine treat (which will then be thrown away by 97% of the kids within minutes of arriving home or you can do what I did b) buy a box of valentines, help the kid fill them out, put them in a ziplock bag, play 2 rounds of Candyland and one round of Mario Party 8, have a glass of wine and catch up on missed episodes of 30 Rock.
Seriously, it’s more fun to be slightly slackerish.
Jen´s lastest post..Precious memories
I didn’t send my kid to school with ANY Valentine’s. Hey…the kids pick on him, why should he pass on any love? Seriously.
Sarah´s lastest post..Gravel in the throat…
But see, you did the smart thing. Simple, quick. And your little guy gets to come home with some awesome goodies! woo!
Don’t get sucked into the competition. I didn’t even send Maggie with cards (she’s barely TWO!) even though they’re having a party today. Felt mildly guilty about it because I know she’ll come with some, but seriously, she has NO idea what’s going on.
Jen´s lastest post..imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
i haven’t faced this, yet.
and how crap am i? i’m not getting my 7month old a valentine card.
also didn’t give her a halloween or xmas card, either.
i think what you did sounded extremely appropriate. it was good of you to participate. when i taught 1st grade for a while, there were a ton of kids who never did that much. carson won’t be thinking of this years down the road.
the others sounded a little “competimommy” to me…
mpotter´s lastest post..vividity
We’re never as bad as when we look at the superheroines of class parties. It gets worse. Wait until you see projects purportedly done by children. My kids’ stuff always looked hopelessly as if done by a child when compared to the masterpieces of others.
patois´s lastest post..Pinch Me!
Yeah, I’ve had this exact experience. Luckily I have stopped caring.
The first Valentines day one mother had gifts that probably cost around $5 dollars each. No kidding.
Bridge´s lastest post..b’dass
Our craft for the tyke’s party was to decorate bags to hold the valentines. Sadly, there were so many mini-bags, they didn’t fit. Whoops!
Anglophile Football Fanatic´s lastest post..Simulations
Duuude. Been there, done that. Lived to tell about it.
kristi´s lastest post..Mary Mary quite contrary
You can’t keep up with the Joneses, girl; it’s best not to try.
All my kids took their Valentines in sandwich bags. I used red pen too. And my kids regularly scream about not wanting to go to school. And we’ve been there longer than a week, so….
Stimey´s lastest post..Bring Your Obnoxious 3-Year-Old to Work Day
Oh my gosh, I can so relate to this post. LOL! I had pretty much the same exact experience. I bought Valentines Cookies (in a bag) Gasp, hey they were 2 for $3.00. The “mailbox” we had to bring for him, was a brown paper covered box that ended up being too small and all of his Valentines and goodies ended up on the ground. Yay me! He also had his Valentine’s cards in a sandwich baggie. You could be my long lost sista!
Natalia Burleson´s lastest post..Weight History Part 3 – The Middle School Years
Last year, I didn’t know if Cordy’s class would have a party because they were out of school for weather most of that week. As a result, I brought nothing and others brought all kinds of stuff.
This year I prepared little (and I mean little) bags with conversation hearts, a lollipop, a card and some bubbles. And I still got one-upped, but I didn’t expect to win the V-Day party competition this year. I just didn’t want to come in last.
Christina´s lastest post..How A Bendy Straw Nearly Made Me Cry
As a former daycare owner, I jump to share this story with anyone who will listen..and you sound like you might could use a pep talk.
My children attended this particular daycare before we bought it. They never cried at drop off. They were simply itching to get in there in the mix and play.
Once we bought the daycare, it was all good. But, I had seen the faces of the women who had to leave their crying child behind. So, it was my intent that any parent that had to walk out with their child crying would receive a phone call from me the very instant that the child quit crying.
As it seems now, in hindsight, that one act was what saved many a parent and my business for some time. There were times when parents were 5 miles down the road before their child was happy and I could call their mom/dad and say, “hey your baby is fine now, playing and happy” and there was other times that I simply opened the front door before the mom/dad even made it to get back in their auto and said, “your baby is fine now, playing and happy”.
So, with that said, I know it is hard to leave a child that is crying and doesn’t want to stay at daycare. And, you say to me, “how do you know, you weren’t the one leaving, you were simply calling to make mom/dad feel better”.
I tell you that I know because I never had a kid that was left to cry more than 5 or 10 minutes max. However, my 3 year old eventually learned to hate the daycare. He would scream and cry for hours and hours on end. He knew I was in the building. He knew if he screamed loud and long enough, I MIGHT come get him.
If I left the building to run errands, his teacher could simply show him that I was gone, my office was empty, my car was gone and mom will be back later. He would then quit crying….until he heard my voice in the building again later in the day.
So, my advice to you is to ask the center to call you when your baby quits crying and know that once you are gone, he has probably forgot why he was crying in the first place.
As for the Valentine’s stuff? Have you read Michelle Lamar’s book White Trash Mom’s Handbook…it will make you feel so much better, lol.
Jerri Ann´s lastest post..TV Boyfriends
Hey, at least you didn’t hand out Valentine’s themed FUN DIP like some crack-head mother did in my kids’ preschool class.
FUN DIP?!?!? Seriously?!? That’s like herion for toddlers.
I’m one of those it never occurred to me type moms too. I see it as performing a valuable service and setting an example. There are always those who will overdo and pressure the rest of us to perform to thier standards. Those of us who fail utterly to do so are showing other moms who don’t really want to hand decorate 20 valentines and the dye the cupcakes to match, that is OK not to. It is OK to grab a box from Target and go no further. They look at us and think “You mean I didn’t have to stay up for 3 nights cutting out hearts & gluing them to edible paper? OMG! I am never doing that again! Thank you !! Thank you for not going above & beyond and showing me it’s ok.”
stacey´s lastest post..Weekly Winners week 6
Hang in there.
It only gets worse, er better.
The Glamorous Life´s lastest post..Playing is so old school Mom.
I helped my 4 year old son write out his Valentine’s. They were Cars. He was so proud of himself that he could write so many of his friends’ names. When we were done,I put them in a Ziploc baggie and popped them into his backpack. My contribution to his party~ a bag of mini carrots and my cream cheese/salsa dip. He was happy. I was happy. I finally learned that it’s his happiness that matters. Not what the other moms think. I let my 8 year old (gasp) pick out pre-designed Valentines this year instead of making them. She was so much happier. I was so much happier.
I totally understand what you mean though. But the others are right; don’t get sucked into the ” I must be like the other moms” routine. You’ll never be happy.
Kristin´s lastest post..V Day
Now that my children are older I can laugh but I remember feeling just like you the first time I went to a preschool party. Clearly the audience isn’t the preschoolers but the mommies.
Was this your first experience with Muffia Moms?
Our valentines were sent to school in a ziplock bag too! I’m not Super Mom, remembering the damn little pieces of paper was a miracle in itself! No worries!
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