Not sure what gives as of late, but I've been getting in some real scraps. Oops!! Good thing this blog does not have a far spread because I would never share the following story otherwise. :)
The last week of school before the holidays, I became one of "those" parents to my daughter's kindergarten teacher. By "those" parents, I mean the parents that cause trouble and squabble with the teacher. Yes, I did that. But let me give you some background.
I am totally cool with this kindergarten teacher. She is sweet and kind and somewhat unique. My daughter loves her and she is firm with my daughter (which is a good thing) so I am happy. However, the monday prior to school breaking for the holiday, I got a note home. It was stapled directly to my daughters fabric lunch bag so I guess I wouldn't miss it. It was hand written on a small bit of lined paper and it said I was to bring layered jello jigglers to school on Friday - enough for 20 children. The colours of the layers were specified and a picture was coloured for me even. I think my jaw likely dropped! There was no ask involved, just inform me what the expectation was.
I hadn't signed anything and this was the first warning. I work full time as a high school teacher (read: I work a million hours per week), have 3 little kids, a husband who just started a brand new job that week (and actually got sick as a dog that week too) and I was to make layered jello jigglers for 20 kids??
I thought about this for a few days, I even picked up jello (tons of it!) from the store, but by Wednesday, I knew there was just no possible way (as I googled how to make the things and learned that each layer requires a few hours to set before doing the next layer). I went in Thursday morning to beg forgiveness from the teacher and ask if there was anything else I could bring (that Safeway has already made on the shelf).
Before I could even make this offer though, I was being admonished for not letting her know ahead of time that I could not make the jigglers. What the ?????? I could not even get a word in at all until I finally spoke very sternly to her. The conversation had not gone as planned. I had not intended to get in a fight over JJ's. I was left feeling very put out.
That evening, I mentioned to my daughter that I would be sending carrot sticks with her to school for her party. She was surprised and looked even worried as she said "But you were supposed to bring jello". I told her "You love carrots right?" (nods) "And I love you, right?" (nods again) "So since I love you and you love carrots, I thought I would send carrots." Huge smile, big hug and an "I love you mom".
The next day, my daughter proudly took 2 large bags of baby carrots to school.
I opened her backpack that evening when we all got home and took out 2 unopened bags of carrots. LoL! I saw that one coming!
I feel really bad for the mom who was informed she must bake cupcakes with a specific pattern or picture iced on top!!
ps. I made the jigglers on Saturday since I had all the stuff at home. Know what's still sitting in my fridge? The jigglers. Know what got eaten by the 2nd day of break? The carrots. And for what its worth, 3 layer jigglers take about 9 hours to make!
