Field Trip?

Today’s question is:  Why would someone agree to attend their child’s field trip and then spend the whole time on their smart phone?

Background:  A couple of months ago I attended a 1 hour field trip with one of my children.  We went to this really cool place and got an inside view of something really cool.   Field trips can be so fun and informative.

Right after we arrived we were standing around this man who is telling us all about how the plant runs and he was showing us all sorts of things on his computer.  It was really interesting (I really loved it, can you tell?).

So…….

Out of the corner of my eye I see one of the moms frantically clicking away on her smart phone.  She isn’t paying attention to anything going on in the moment, only whatever she is doing on her phone.  Then I notice her child.  Her child saw her.  Her child watched her as she totally ignored all that was going on in the present and clicked away at that phone.  And it made me think “what is so important it can’t wait 1 hour?”  Why do people think what is happening somewhere else is more important that what is happening right in front of them?

For all of you out there that want to say, well maybe she works, here is what I have to say.  If she took the time off from work to attend this field trip she should be able to NOT work for the 1 measly hour it trip took.  It all comes down to a decision, she decided to attend the field trip, so she should have been there, more than just physically.

December 5, 2011 @ 2:37 pm

Leave me at the movies?

Today’s question is:  Who throws a birthday party, takes the kids to a movie they didn’t tell the parents they were taking them to and then leaves them at the movie to go out to dinner with their spouse?

Background: A crazy parent?  A friend of mine with a 5th grader told me this story.

This party was a sleepover and the parent of the child having the party never mentioned they might be going to a movie, a pg-13 movie.  But nevertheless, off to the movies the family and the birthday party went.  They got the kids all situated (4 birthday friends and 4 boys in the family ranging in age from about 4 years until 13 or 14 years) and then the parents said, “hey we’re going to to get dinner, we’ll be back for you once the movie is over”, and off they went.

No joke.

Who does that?

So my other question is, did they have a drink or two while enjoying their dinner?  This whole birthday party makes me wonder about how some people think.  Am I the only one who is completely blow away by this situation?

February 4, 2011 @ 8:31 am

Sleepover?

Today’s question is:  Who drops their child at a complete strangers house for a sleepover and doesn’t pop in to meet the parents?

Background:  For the second time in a month I have been brought to complete disbelief in regards to some of my children’s friends.

About a month ago, my 10 year old wanted her friend from school to sleep over.  She attends a middle school now and there are children from all over our town.  Many that I have never met.  So this little girl is scheduled to come over, I spoke to the mom, very briefly a few days before so she could check to make sure I knew about the sleep over.  The night the girl came, she was dropped at the curb and came to the door by herself.  There was no parent, no discussion of when she’d get picked up in the morning, nothing.  I was shocked.

I mean, I could be a drunk, I could be a crazy person, I could be completely unreliable, I could be so many things and without coming into my door and meeting me, you’d have no idea. 

Fast forward a month, my 12 year old wanted to have her new friend sleep over.  Same deal, the girl is someone I’ve never met from the middle school.  My girl plans out the entire sleepover.  The mom never calls to double check.  I have absolutely no contact with the girl or the parents.  Once again the girl is dropped at the curb, she rings the bell and enters the house and I never see a parent.

I mean seriously, I could be a drunk, I could be a crazy person, I could be completely unreliable, I could be so many things and without coming to my door and meeting me, you’d have no idea.

Lucky for both of these parents, I am kinda normal! LOL

The thing is, I can not fathom sending any of my children to a someones house I’ve never met for a sleepover without 1. talking to them first and 2. coming to the door and meeting the parents.

We are talking about 10 and 12 year olds here.  Does anyone else think that’s a little young for a blind sleepover?  Or have I set my expectations too high on this one?

November 27, 2010 @ 10:38 am

makin’ up stories?

Today’s question is: Seriously, why on earth do people make up stories instead of just coming clean with the truth?

Background: As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a girl scout leader and I really like it, there is only one unpleasant aspect, some of the parents…….
Here’s the scenerio, girl scout troop paperwork due a month ago, one parent completely blows it off. I am tasked with asking this parent, one final time, for the paperwork when I brought the daughter home from the first Scouting event on Sunday.
I tell the parent to please have the stuff in the very next day at the very latest.
I am met with, “oh, well I sent an email message saying I couldn’t find the paperwork and I never heard back”. My eyebrows raised and and I’m sure I looked skeptical, because this is the typical line for this parent. I tell the parent to call the leader in charge of paperwork that night and figure out how to rectify this by the next day. NO CALL, NO PAPERWORK, NOTHING. (what’s new? :rolleyes:)
Oh and most importantly she lied about the email, she never sent an email that said she couldn’t find the paperwork.
Here’s how, in an ideal world, the scenerio should have gone: I show up with girl scout after event, I ask the parent about the paperwork, informing her that the entire troops paperwork is already sent in and being processed, and the parent apologizes for being a lame-o. Upon discussion of lost paperwork, parent calls leader in charge of paperwork and gets it going. All registration responsibility is then lifted from the leaders, and the parent actually does what she says.
Why, oh why, can’t people just tell the truth and do what they say?
October 22, 2009 @ 10:10 pm