school daze...part deux

today is the first day back to school from holiday vacation. so...after having a lot of freedom, (and hayden having a lot of extra time and energy), we are back in school mode. basically...i get some sanity back; which is great...because i dont have much to begin with. so therefore...i thought this was an appropriate post for today.

after i posted "school daze" (which was sooo long ago...), i started having more flashbacks of my own school years. i was thinking about my experiences growing up compared to what i envision for hayden. i cant say i want a better experience for him that what i had, because what i had was pretty ideal. i had a very happy childhood filled with lots of opportunity and love. but because my family is hardly the picture perfect norman rockwell family, i have to laugh at some of my experiences.

as i wrote in my previous "school daze" post, ive been really trying to be the perfect mommie and do everything as june cleaver would. obviously nobody is perfect and im far from june cleaver. for example....there was a week in school, when the kids dress in the "color of the day." each day of the week was a different color. on "blue day." it wasnt sufficient enough for me to dress hayden in a blue shirt. i put so much thought into the outfit. so much so, that it was insanely pathetic. i mean...his socks. his underwear! i wore blue! we ate blueberries! a little overboard, wouldnt you say? so we get in the car, (which is always an ordeal), and i get him to school somewhat on time, (punctuality isnt my forte). im pretty impressed with myself. that is...until i turn around to unbuckle him, and see that i totally forgot to buckle him into his car seat! i know...insert obvious britney joke here. all in all...not the complete worst thing ever. its easy to do and im sure its happened many times with some of you too. but it doesnt exactly win me the perfect mother of the year award i was so striving for. can i at least maybe get a runner up award? i mean, "yes officer...i endangered my kids life. but look! he is perfectly color coordinated for "blue day!" doesnt that count for something?

a few days after i drove to school without hayden buckled in....i had another "ooops" moment. on this particular day...i forgot to pick him up. yup. i totally left my kid at school! i lost track of time. so when susie called to see what we were doing, i looked at my watch and went into a panic. i hung up on susie and hauled ass to school. the visual was pretty bleak. i walk in the classroom, and there is hayden...sitting at a table by himself, jacket and backpack on, while his teacher was cleaning the room. i felt like the worst mother. again...in the grand scheme of things...it wasnt like i left him on the side of a road to fend for himself. he was in a safe environment. i just felt stupid.

so what does this have to do with my childhood? well...dont you remember the days when there were no seat belt laws? you rode in the back trunk compartment in your parents station wagon with 15 other kids in the carpool group? ok...so my mom didnt have a station wagon. she had a little datsun 280 zx. a two seater sports car. but i sooo vividly remember my mom driving with someone in the passenger seat, and my brother and i in the tiny hatchback. whenever a cop would drive by, shed yell, "cop! duck down!" and my brother and i would immediately flatten ourselves down and hold our breaths until my mom said the coast was clear. can you even imagine that in this day and age?

my parents were young parents. i didnt realize it then, but they were! so when i was in elementary school, they were in their 20's! when i was in my 20's, i was out screwing around and having fun. so even tho my parents had kids and responsibilities; it didnt mean they werent still young. i have two very vivid memories of being embarrassed by mom at my elementary school. im sure there were more...but these are the ones that stick out in my mind.

the first, was when she got that 280 zx car i spoke of in the previous paragraph. i walked out of school, with my friends...ready to board the bus. i recall, like it was yesterday...my mom standing next to a little black sports car, yelling out to me across the parking lot..., "lori! he bought me the car! i have a new car! lets go for a ride!" jeez. i think my friend said, "is that your mom?" ummm...yeah. do i go over to her, or get on the bus and pretend that i have no idea who she is? its funny, because its not a big deal, and kind of funny and cool. but back in school...the dumbest things embarrass you. it was soooo not a big deal. especially compared to the next memory.

my other prominent memory takes us back to the same time frame; elementary school. but instead of a car, it involves neil diamond. i know...gag. but my mother was obsessed with him at the time. she had my father follow his tour bus to his hotel. she got his autograph and kept it in her underwear drawer for years. (double gag). but this isnt my story...
so when neil diamond came into town to perform, my parents went to the concert. no big deal. 20 somethings like concerts. my mom wore, (if you can even picture it), a tube top. the tale of what happened next goes something like this. my dad turns to his friend to talk to him, or whatever. when he turns back around, my mom is gone and he sees that she had run down to the stage. so she decides she wants to go ON the stage. to accomplish this, she faces the audience and goes to lift herself up onto the stage. ok. well...she accidentally had her hands too close to her, and as she lifted herself up, she pulled her tube top down. lovely. she gets up on stage and tells neil that she lost her shirt getting up there. ok...its funny. it is! but again...you dont think its funny when youre in elementary school, and its your mom! the next day EVERYBODY came up to me... "was that your mom who was onstage topless last night?" ugh. and let me tell you; this story went around town for years! even funnier... just a few months ago my parents went to an oldies concert. my mom was telling her friend about her neil diamond concert experience, and the people in front of her turned around and said to my mom, " i was just telling my friend about that story!" my mom says, "that was me!" the lady says to my mom..."i was there!" so...30 years later, its still haunting me. only now...i think its funnier than hell.

things are so different now. my parents sent me to a main street in the dark to wait for the bus. that wouldnt happen now. today, parents go out to drop the kids off at the bus stop and then do the same to pick them up after school. even if their house is right in front of the bus stop! my parents sent me to school on days that school was closed. im sure they left me places. for a bake
sale i had in junior high school, my mom, being very "un-june cleaver_like", threw together some cupcakes. so many parents had pretty and perfectly looking bake goods. my cupcakes looked disgusting. my mom hadnt bought any decorations for them. she crushed up some candy canes that happened to be in the house, and threw them on. they were melted and sticky and not so pretty looking. but ya know what? they were delicious! and i made the same exact ones
last week with hayden!

im sure ill screw up doing a lot of the same stuff too. and sure...i might send him off to school with a waffle shoved in his hand as we rush to school. seatbelt or not....at least hell still be well coordinated.