Notably More Adult

Parent teacher day at school with two kids enrolled.  I’ve scheduled these for years now but somehow it’s always the same.  You reach the 10:40AM French meeting up on the third floor at 10:45AM and notice on the schedule the next meeting is with the athletics teacher in the gym in five minutes.   “Bonjours.  Comment dit en ‘very late.’ en Francais?  “Je suis très en retard.”

Many people from many different directions are texting me and calling me, pinging on multiple medium trying to get information.  “Parent Teacher Conf” is a pretty effective repellent.  The teachers are all thoughtful and I find myself scribbling lots and lots of notes.  I’ve filled one and then another page with good old fashioned hand written script.  I know that later this afternoon I’ll go through what I wrote, class by class with my daughters.  Why don’t I type these notes?  I’d capture more info and it would be easier to read later on.  Somehow it doesn’t feel right to break out a laptop in a classroom setting. 

My younger daughter’s program is an integrated approach to middle school and as a part of this she is supposed to lead us in a review of her progress, rather than the teachers.  She doesn’t a great job.  There is a list of suggested questions we should ask her.  I ask her something that is not on the list and when my wife directs me to the list of ‘suggested questions’ suggesting that I should stick to the script, I point out the word “suggested” and clarify that we are at liberty to innovate.  My daughter is notably more adult in her role, than either of us.

Later that evening everyone was busy with ‘one more thing’ until we all decided to have Japanese food.  We called the place that is supposed to be pretty good, which my older daughter’s recommended in the past.  They said they were booked for the next hour at least, just like the last Friday night.  No matter, there’s that other Japanese place.  I remember it as decidedly middling but I’m too distracted to protest much.  I need to spend the first thirty minutes of dinner walking around outside in the late winter air, on yet another must-do conference call. 

Friday, 03/24/17