This morning I wrote about Tyler’s first field trip without me. Well, I goofed. When I picked him up from school, he was a little upset because he was not allowed to go on the field trip. The permission slips were sent home on Tuesday. No where on the letter did it state, “please return on Wednesday so that we can know how many buses we need”. Okay, maybe I should have known that but I’m new at this. I just assumed that since they were planning to take the entire school they had enough buses reserved. The tickets and snacks for the movie came courtesy of one of their education partners. Unless your teacher branded you as having a behavior problem or your parents didn’t want you to attend, then you were good to go.
What made me really mad was no one called me on Wednesday to ask if he could go. Seems like the principal would have called and said “Hey, we’re taking a head count, is Tyler going?” I even double-checked to see if the note said to return on Wednesday (it didn’t). For the last field trip, I know they were accepting permission slips the day of the trip. I was chaperoning that one and they were making calls to get verbal okays for kids who didn’t have their slips.
Okay I’m ticked off but I guess it’s my fault because I should have sent it back but I wasn’t thinking. I guess what made me hot is I have been one of those involved parents and I guess I felt someone should have checked with me. I think it’s unfair to punish a child for the fault of the parent. Thankfully, he wasn’t too upset because the movie was Meet the Robinsons. He wanted to see Spider Man or Shrek. Still, he took it like a little trooper. I was really proud of him and let him know that I was sorry and that I was proud of how well he took not going. To make up for my mistake I will take him to see both movies when school is out.
I guess what I learned from this experience is to always send permission slips back the next day after I receive them. Even if there’s no “return by date” on it. I also learned that when in doubt I need to call for clarification. Oh well, you live and learn!
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