Parents Follow Your Advice - Do Your Homework

All the kids are back in school and kitchen tables are piled with papers and forms and syllabi that we parents have to read, sign, notarize, and return.  Who’s in school anyway, sometimes I wonder, when I’m still sitting at the table with pen in hand, trying to understand how to get an “A” and the points lost for missing the deadline – or is it due date? – while the kids have been finished their homework for half an hour and are munching on popcorn and hanging out in the backyard.

So what are we supposed to do with all these papers and aren’t we all a little tempted to toss them in recycling, figuring the teacher will send another one if its really that important?  Yeah, maybe tempted, but don’t do that.  Why? A few reasons we need to fill out those papers and put them back in the “return to school” side of the Papers to go Home pocket folder.

• It’s wasteful. Think, if all the parents of the 150,000+ students in MCPS each threw away just one form that came home from school, how many reams of paper that would be. And we know we want the school to watch the budget, so help them save on paper. Don’t be wasteful.
• The kids will miss out on the power points, the sticker, or the mascot money that they will receive for turning in said papers. These things are magical. Don’t believe me? Try to offer your kid a sticker for cleaning their room and see how fast they laugh at you. But let Mrs. Teacher offer them the same and their desk will be as clean as a surgery table. Let them earn their rewards for being responsible.
• Some of it’s important. There’s health forms and who can pick up your kid in an emergency forms, when papers are due and tests are given syllabi, when schools closed and what time is “early dismissal” notices.  Don’t be the parent who’s out to lunch when there’s a half-day or your kid falls off the swings and no-one’s there to help your kid.
• It makes the teachers think you care about your kid.  Don't you want to be the parent that teachers think want their kids to do well in school? (Hint, the answer is "yes.")  Who wants to be the parent that the teacher thinks is the slacker who won’t even turn in the paper so the kid can get their mascot money?
• It makes your kids think you care about school.  If they think you care enough to read and turn in the paper, who knows, they might do the same with that math worksheet and science project, eventually graduate from high school, and move out your house. See – you’ve got to look at the long term picture.

Yes, there’s a lot of papers. And because you have five kids, you are tired of writing your name, address, phone number, childcare plans, and marital status on the same form over and over again.  Here’s a little tip - write out the basic information on one, copy it, then fill in each kid’s name on the copy. Keep a blank one for when they lose it. Be sure to keep a copy of that medical form that you paid your pediatrician for, too.

If any of those papers don’t make sense – why do they need it, what does this exactly mean, do you really have to fill it out – contact your school, call that busy-body mom that knows everything, ask for it in another language, get somebody to help you.

Then when you’re done, pour yourself a beverage of your choice and enjoy the last few moments of the summer sun.

Frances chats about motherhood and keeping sane on Just Piddlin' - www.slackermomof4.blogspot.com.