First things first, Greg is home safe and sound.
Now huge doses of mommy guilt. Today is Zach's first field trip. And I'm not there. I'm missing his first field trip ever! I feel so awful I could cry. My mom was at my kindergarten field trip, that's what moms are suppose to do. How much do you think the counseling bill will be for this one? "My mom didn't go with me on my first field trip!" Cha-ching! *sobs*
I always told myself I'd be an involved parent in the kids' school. I was so psyched with Zach started preschool. Except they didn't want parent volunteers. Hmph. So I did the best I could, baking cookies, attending the Christmas program and Easter egg hunt, donating supplies when asked.
On to kindergarten... The first obstacle, in order to volunteer, you have to have a $25 FBI fingerprint background check run first. Um... It's probably stupid but I have issues with the FBI having anything on me. I'm okay with a criminal check, I've had those done before for jobs but my fingerprints? What if once in their database, they sort of match up to some huge unsolved murder and I can't prove where I was on the night of June 14, 1999? Eek!
Right, right, it's for the safety of the kids. The criminal check would work just as well. And most schools don't require any of the above. Common sense thinking is that if I'm safe enough to be with my kids, than I'm probably safe enough to be around others. There are exceptions I know and I do want all the kids to be safe but there's got to be a better way than making a boring mom like me jump through hoops to be at the school with my son. So needless to say, I haven't been fingerprinted.
Next obstacle, those other 4 kids... They couldn't go with me, not that it would be a good idea to have them all there anyway. And my darling husband travels a lot. When the school asked for volunteers, I had no idea if Greg would even be home today. And I don't have a day time sitter, just a high school girl after school one.
So here I sit, feeling very guilty. Zach didn't even mention me going with him because he didn't know that moms could go. It's his first field trip, he doesn't know what to expect. And I'm sure he's going to have a fabulous time and I won't be there to see it. It'll be his little memory and I won't be a part of it. This sucks.
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