Two Weeks Down, 12 More YEARS to Go!

Sarah.

End of week two. Exhausted.

Long bus rides. First one on in the morning, last one off at night. Somehow that doesn't seem entirely fair to me, but what do I know? I am watching it closely though. And if it goes beyond 50 minutes I am going to say something. It's been over an hour too many times. What's the poor kid to do? No time to play!

Another totally new and exciting thing is eating lunch in the gym. How new the notion of a lunch bag. But alas....every single day so far something has gone missing.

"Where are your barretts?"
"I dunno" [shrug]
"Where is the BOTTOM of this lunch container?"
"I dunno" [shrug]
"Where is your spoon?"
"I dunno" [shrug]
"Where is your HAT?"
[gasp] "Oh!....I dunno"
"Where is your brand new snack container I JUST bought you?"
[gasp]......"I.....don't know"
"Sarah! Not ANOTHER sandwich container! What are we to do about this?"
"I don't know. Um... maybe don't give me sammiches anymore."
"And your carrot container from the other day?"
"No more carrots either, maybe."
"Oh, so now there are no sandwiches, no carrots, no grapes, no yogurt ever to be in your lunch. Sarah, you can't go to school with an EMPTY lunch bag....you'll STARVE!"
[shrug]

Grrr. My friend Patricia is struggling with these same issues with her newly endowed grade one daughter. This gives me some small comfort, at least knowing that I am not the only one. But as Patricia and I discussed, if an item is lost each day of the school year, we'll be broke. And the landfill will be pretty darn full. Kind of counter to what we were looking for, isn't it?

So today Sarah has a sandwich cut into triangles. In a handy-dandy sandwich BAG. It will be mushy by lunch time, which was the fate my sandwiches suffered each day of my young student life, but she made her bed and now must lie in it.

Sure, she's only still 6, and that's a pretty hefty responsibility to place on her shoulders, but someone decided she is big enough to spend all day at school, so by extension she's big enough to eat at school in the gym with the other kids. So therefore, she ought to be responsible enough to bring those items home that got into the bag in the first place.

Well... I guess.

Personally I can't see how hard it is to look around your eating area and make sure you have sandwich container, yogurt container, carrot container, spoon. Even for a six year old I can see how it would work. I was 6 once. I don't remember my mom going gray over me losing stuff. But me, clearly I am different.....

"You know, of all the spoons you could have lost, you didn't even lose the one we have doubles of. You lost your favourite blue one."
"I KNOW mom! Don't remind me! It upsets me!"
"Good! Use that! Be upset! That will mean you CARE about the items you're taking to school. That will help you LOOK around the area and remember to put the stuff in your bag."
"You want me to be sad?"
"I don't know, Sarah - is it helping?"
"I guess. I dunno." [shrug]

[Mom shrugs]. We'll see, I guess.

How to instill some sort of understanding of the effort to pack her lunch, the money spent to outfit her lunch bag, the cost to us and the environment if she's so nonchalant about things and things go to waste. How, how, how?

Is there anyone who knows? Or does time tell with regard to such things?

I'm not usually good at patience. But - sigh - something tells me I better bone up on the finer points of 'waiting it out.'

Until next time.....
k