Days Like This

Action-packed day, for my son and for his school.  Did two volunteer assignments related to the school garden; also, my son's teacher visited the house--she does one home visit for all of her students whose parents are okay with that--and it took about three hours to clean and organize the house.  This week will be like that, full of school duties, although Tuesday (tomorrow), Wednesday and Friday, I should be able to devote at least part of the day to writing.

I should repeat that:  my son's teacher is scheduling home visits with all of her students whose parents agree to it.  This is so unusual that every time I mention it to parents whose children are in other teachers' classes,  their jaws drop.  The only time I've heard of this practice is in Farmer Boy, the book by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is set in the mid-19th century.

My son's teacher just wants to get to know her kids better.  "I had no idea he was so into dinosaurs!" she exclaimed while she was here.  The visit was short, around thirty minutes; but what a wonderful idea, and what a lucky kid my son is this year...except for one thing:  she's also pregnant and is expecting in late February.  She will only be his teacher for another four months at the most.

And this also happened to my son last year; his teacher left in March to have a baby.

I don't know what effect this will have on him this year; maybe he's come to expect it, so he won't even be bothered by it.  It all depends on the substitute teacher...I was upset when I heard it was happening again, but what can I do?  We'll just have to make the best of it...

Seven years ago, when she found out I was pregnant, my mother--already quite sick with lung cancer at the time--shook her head and looked sad.  I'd recently finished grad school, finally, and she was hoping to see me launch my "brilliant" academic career (one that I didn't want), with few or no impediments--"You'll see," she said ominously.  "You'll see how much work it is to raise a child."

She knew there would be days like today...days when career pursuits are completely subsumed by  parenting duties.

Again, what can I do?  It was, actually, a wonderful day.  My son's teacher took the time to come to our house, just to get to know him better.  It's hard to believe it actually happened.