It Never Fails

No matter how organized we try to be, no matter how far in advance we try to look at the calendar and no matter what our past experiences are, we always seem to get taken by surprise.  It begs the question, are we stupid or is this just the way things are or do we just get told these things in passing at 10:30pm at night or did the teacher not post it or did the coach not know about it or does anyone even give a crap?

For instance, a young lady asked our son to a dance earlier this year.  What we would call a Sadie Hawkins dance, they call MORP(prom spelled backwards).  Well, the day of the dance a water polo tournament is scheduled.  A water polo tournament goes on all day long and is exhausting for those who do not know.  Well, let’s just say it provided a lot of stress to our son who ended up having to race home from La Jolla, jump in the shower, shove some food down his throat and meet his date at the dance.  Is this good stress or bad stress?  I guess that’s just the way life is, but it happens so often.

Prom is this Saturday night and he has had this planned and arranged now for a month.  We didn’t even know juniors could attend since at our high school only seniors were allowed to attend.  In total, we will probably be spending somewhere between two and three hundred dollars on prom.  A group of them are supposed to meet for dinner and photos at 5:30pm and then take a party bus to the venue.  Well, it turns out he made CIF swim finals that are the same day and start at 3:00pm in the afternoon.  This was a surprise to him and us because his times haven’t been good enough for consideration and  yet he has been honored with the invitation.  He would have to have the race of his life to win this thing.  What to do? 

Same goes for my daughter.  Her varsity dance team is doing a two night performance this Friday and Saturday night.  It’s a big deal.  They have been practicing long and hard all semester for this show and these young ladies are talented dancers.  You would enjoy the show.  Well, her private dance group booked a competition in Palm Springs on Saturday and Sunday.  She’s doing full rehearsals at the school and going to the studio at 9:00pm to practice for the weekend competition.  This stuff just gets out of hand.  She will be a zombie when she gets home on Sunday evening.

Can we foresee this stuff.  Well, the Mrs. and I try to really stay up on things on the calendar.  With the two school websites, twelve teacher websites, all the aquatics emails, the changes in all the schedules that pop up and the teens not delivering the information in a timely manner, I guess this is just the way it is for now.  Not to mention, the SAT prep classes, the SAT test, the ACT test and the driving to colleges and looking for a summer job and all the homework and AP tests.  I went to a great college and don’t remember anything in high school being this crazy busy.

At this age we and the teachers put all of the communication through the kids, so that they grow up to take care of themselves, but things fall through the cracks and there are the unexpected things. 

Thank goodness Stewart drives himself around and Jennifer will be driving herself in a few months.  Maybe we will have all this down by the time Jacqueline’s a senior:)

Share