Loser Mom

Today is a day that will go down as a verse in my song "Loser Mom". The Loser Mom song all started a few weeks ago when Caroline told me one afternoon that she would like to read me a book. Thinking she would be making the whole thing up I started to listen. Only she wasn't making the book up. She was reading it.

I told her how proud I was of her and she read several other books. (Don't get too excited - we're talking the Bob Books, but still she was reading.) She decided that she was going to bring in several books and read them to the class. The next day when I dropped her off at school, it just so happened that the assistant teacher in her class opened the door for her and greeted her. As Caroline got out of the Tahoe (another story for another day) with her whole slew of books, her coat and backpack she practically yelled to her teacher, "I'm a reader! I can read!!".

The look on the teacher's face is one I won't soon forget. While I was taking in the look, she replied to Caroline, "Caroline, you are a great reader. You have been reading for a long time!" And then looks at me like she wondered if I was aware of this marvel. She may or may not have even said something like "Did you not know she could read?". But I was trying to process the whole thing so I really wasn't listening at this point.

Later on that day, I was relaying how stupid I felt to my friend Christy - a former kindergarten teacher - and she said something like "do you have a big L on your forehead or what?". Of course, she said this in the very nicest way possible.

I am the Loser Mom.

I'm sure there have been other instances of Loser Mom Syndrome recently, but because of today's Loser Mom situation I really can't remember any of the rest of them. Today's is pretty good though.

I returned home after being in the Atlanta area Sunday night (Live recording of Travis Cottrell's Worship CD - and it's going to be GOOD!) yesterday afternoon right after Jere and Caroline got out of school - score one for the Loser Mom - home soon after school let out! It was then time for snack, homework, dinner and the like. While I did check Jere's folder that afternoon, I did not check Caroline's folder until early evening. For those of you who think this is horrible, she is in JK and they do not have homework on a regular basis. We know about homework in advance.

So I open her folder and see a note that her class and the other JK class are going to sing in the Lower School Chapel this morning at 8:30. I knew I had a pretty busy day today and when asked if she wanted me to come she really didn't care. So I didn't. Loser Mom. In my defense, I had plans to go to Zumba and then shopping at Costco for a ton of food to send into school in the morning for the teachers. This is also another story for another day.

This afternoon when I picked her up her teacher commented on what a great job she did when she prayed in Chapel. As Bon Qui Qui would say Excuse Me? Prayed in Chapel? She prayed in Chapel. In front of the entire Lower School. And I wasn't there. Because I was at Zumba. I felt like the biggest.loser.mom.ever.

Of course to Caroline this was no big deal. She was asked this morning to pray and she did. Just a regular old school day.

So if you see me around town with a big L on my forehead or an L on my sweater - much like Laverne in Laverne and Shirley- you will now understand the significance.