Mental health days.

A few weeks ago, I attended a kindergarten registration parent meeting at my kids' elementary school. I almost didn't go. Sam and Lucy ARE starting school, but I already know so much about the school since Jordan's been there for three years, I wasn't sure I needed to hear the rundown of cafeteria procedures and where I could and could not drop off my car rider after 8:01 AM. But I didn't want Sam and Lucy to miss the bus ride around the parking lot - an adventure given to all the up and coming kindergartners, so I went to the meeting. I just didn't listen.

Instead, I sat in the back of the room fraternizing with several other Moms who's children share a classroom with Jordan. We got to talking about Saturday school. Our superintendent decided this past school year that snow days ought to be made up on Saturday mornings. So a few times this past winter, school was in session on a Saturday. I'm not a fan. Really, I don't think anyone is a fan, because seriously. Who wants to send their kids to school on the ONE day a week that they don't have to be out of bed at 7:02? So we don't do it. Jordan has never been to school on a Saturday. Instead, we happily opt for an unexcused absence, and I feel no shame in admitting it. Another mother, however, said that she felt, even though she didn't like the weekend school sessions, it was her responsibility as a parent to teach her children respect for the school system and instill in them the discipline necessary to succeed in life, even if that meant attending school on Saturday.

Dude. I guess I totally missed that lesson in the "how to be a responsible parent" lecture. Do you think that means I shouldn't have ripped my kid out of school early today so we could go tubing down the river on his Dad's day off? You know, I'm all about respecting the system and all, but I'm kinda thinking the whole success in life thing is much more related to the family, and not so much to a kid's attendance record.

When I was growing up, my Mother called them mental health days. A day when we didn't necessarily have to be sick, but if we needed a day off from school, we were absolutely allowed to take it. It didn't happen often (perhaps it was all the responsibility we learned while tubing down the river), but when we really needed a day off, we were allowed to take it, with or without a good excuse. Just a few weeks ago, Jordan was dragging his feet all morning - a rare event for the boy that gets up for school, fixes himself breakfast, gets dressed, gets his school things together, and then comes into the bedroom asking for a ride. He said he didn't feel like going, that he felt a little sick (I didn't really believe this part, but you know, if he didn't go to school I could stay in bed ten more minutes, so I wasn't gonna complain), so he stayed home. Mental health day all the way. He watched batman cartoons, read his book all afternoon, and was absolutely ready and refreshed to go back to school the next morning. And I didn't feel even a little bit guilty.

And now moving on... we really did go and tube down the river this afternoon. Not serious tubing down the river... because we have four children. And a dog. And the water was cold. But we played in the cold mountain water, enjoyed the spring sunshine and ate ice cream on the way home. I kept thinking how wonderful it would have been to take pictures of my adorable children sitting side by side in a bright blue inner tube, floating through the lovely green forest... but then I remembered I don't have a camera anymore.

So depressing.