Parenting: I’m a Terrible School Mom

by Cecily Kellogg on July 5th, 2012 | 3 Comments »

My daughter started at a Parent’s Morning Out program when she was just a bit over two years old, and I did not have ANY idea how to be the mom of a kid in school. In fact, in what is probably my most humiliating moment as a mom, I picked my daughter up from school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving only to be glared at intensely by my daughter's teacher in the pick-up line. Why? Because apparently there had been a school performance. Apparently the parents were supposed to be there. Apparently, we were supposed to take her home after said performance—about an hour before we showed up to get her.

I am STILL so embarrassed, four years later.

I think since I spent my childhood as a latch-key kid (Remember those? You never hear about kids doing that anymore.) as the daughter of a single mom, I had no parent model to work from when it came to having a kid in school. These last four years I’ve struggled with this; don’t even get me started about being a dance mom, my goodness, that was tough. Luckily, with kindergarten came a school calendar, which helped tremendously because it was all planned in advance.

Ultimately, though, being the mother of a school age kid means more than just attending school events. It means making hard decisions about the best education for your child. After sending my daughter to our local public school kindergarten—which, sadly, is in a sub-par public school district—we made the hard choice to send our daughter to a private school.

Why was it a hard choice? Well, first and foremost, we aren’t rich. The expenditure for private school is something that will be challenging for our family, but we think my daughter is worth facing that challenge. We considered home schooling, but my husband and I both work full-time (yes, from home) and we want my daughter to have the benefit of being around other kids during the day. So we chose a fabulous alternative school near us and have decided to find a way to make it work.

Also, I promise to work very hard to never miss another school event. Gah. I'm still embarrassed about missing that performance. And I’m sure the therapy bills for my daughter are going to be astronomical. Or maybe she won’t remember? Gah.

What have been your biggest challenges when first sending your children to school?

Featured image courtesy of Flickr.

Cecily Kellogg is the mom of nearly six year old daughter, a wife, and the social media strategist for AboutOne, an online family organizer that turns your phone into a remote control for your life, working with your existing calendar and contact tools, so you can automatically organize, store, and share family memories and household paperwork. Through web and mobile apps, AboutOne guides you along the path to organization, rewarding you along the way for meeting your organizational goals.