This is what my six-year-old daughter wore on the first day of first grade. Take a good look at the outfit because fifty percent of it is no longer with us.
"Where is your new sweater?" I asked when she got off the bus later that afternoon.
"I don't know," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "It could be anywhere."
My heart swelled with joy at the realization that I had, in essence, flushed $15 down the toilet. I was distraught to say the least, but eventually took comfort in the knowledge that the sweater was not alone. Where ever it was, my daughter's hair clips, socks, and bracelet were also. Or so I hoped.
"Why are half of your clothes missing?" I wanted to know. "Did you have gym today? Was it hot in your classroom? What would compel you to take off your socks?
"Just face it," my daughter replied, "The sweater is gone."
This morning, Camber came down for breakfast wearing a skirt, flip flops and three sweatshirts.
"But I'm cold!" she whined when I told her to lose the extra layers.
The two most recent additions to my daughter's sweatshirt collection stayed at home. The third--a ratty and stained Hannah Montana atrocity--was ceremoniously draped over her shoulders and sent to its impending doom.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow," I said to the sweatshirt as I watched it board the school bus and head down the street toward the Bermuda Triangle.
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What has your child lost/left at school?
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My daughter has Days of the Week socks (a Target purchase). Last week, she lost one of the Friday socks. Today, she was distraught--what could she possibly wear with her school t-shirt and the Amish-length skirt she chose?
I suggested that she wear one Thursday and one Saturday, and that between them, it could equal Friday. She wasn't buying that.
So that lovely Friday sock, along with 8,000 hair clips and strangely, a pair of clip-on earrings, are lost to us forever, I'm afraid.
I teach Kindergarten - no matter how many times I say "make sure you take all of your things"... whether it be out on the playground, coming back from the cafeteria, or packing up at the end of the day... I am always left with a variety of items. Lunchboxes, hats, sweaters, necklaces... but, I must admit... I've never had a sock!!
A brand-spankin'-new winter coat. Gone.
ONE..not both, brand new shoe. Couldn't figure that out for two years until we found it under the neighbor's over-grown pine tree, just after finally throwing the other away figuring neither of his two younger brothers would ever need one shoe. It was then that my son remembered kicking it under there.
We have been lucky so far keeping up with the valuables during school. I think they get alot of help from their teachers.
I found your blog in the Parent & Child magazine, congrats on the award! Such a cute blog!!
LOL...the Bermuda triangle..love it! I hate when the kids loose stuff at school, or worse come home with some elses stuff!
A few months ago my family set off on a walk after dinner...As we were walking down the street I found my 6 year old's ice cream wrapper, which made me say "Aidan, is this your trash? pick it up..." a few steps later "Aidan, is this your scooter? get it" a few steps later "Aidan, is this your sock? pick it up..." finally, "Aidan, is this your other sock?" My husband and I had a good laugh, especially because my son thought it was ok to just take his socks off and leave them down the street because he "got hot!"
Now, now, maybe she is giving clothes to the poor. ;)
My kids permanently leave their sweat shirts at school. They wear a school uniform and have to go to school cold in the morning when they do this. This week my son came home with no shoes!! they were found the next day (after threats of being banned from t.v for a week, so he would remember) at the top of a tree! I also had to send him to school wearing gumboots that day. arrgghh!
Parenting Inc I spit soda out my nose I laughed so hard at your reasoning! Love it! My daughter came home without her panties on one day of 1st grade. I was a little alarmed to say the least. If she had been a teenager she would have been fitted for a chastity belt alá the Princess Bride, however she was only 6.
Apparently, she farted a little turd out and had to clean up somehow. When I asked why she didn't call me, she said,"Moooomm it's no biggie to not wear panties, my skirt was loooong, nobody saw." (eye roll, huff, huff)
From the office lady at a k-9 school...I'm sure if you check the lost and found, you will find many of your belongings there. We find, underwear, plates, crockpot lids...you name it!
The only problem is you will probably never "lose" the ratty sweatshirt. Kids always keep track of the stuff you wish they would lose.
Can't tell you how many brand new sweatshirts my boys lost at school. Drove me crazy!
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I'm afraid it doesn't get better as they get older. My father in law used to be a janitor at the high school. Kids left all sorts of stuff...including nice towels, school sweatshirts that cost a fortune, back packs and coats. Amazing.
If you think the array of Lost and Found is amazing at an elementary school, you should see what's collected at the end of summer camp.
Oh it's always great when kids leave their stuff at school - no matter what it is. My favorite was when my son was in kindergarten & came home one day wearing someone elses clothes. The whole outfit. A year later I still have no idea what happened to his.
oh' that sucks! GOTTA LOVE are kids! I really hate the winter and the jeans and pants that get wholes in them, that no PATCH's fix. Hopefully she learned ;)
I could never understand how my kids could get off the bus without a coat when it was 30 degrees outside. "How do you forget a coat in February?" I'd ask.
Now my son (a senior) leaves for school in jeans and returns home in shorts - year round. I don't even ask.
Neither of my kids is above wearing their friends clothing - especially personalized t-shirts from other schools. My daugther's name is not Shannon and she doesn't go to St. Theresa High School but she wears the shirt any way. Somewhere, some other kids are wearing the clothes I picked out for my children....
Amazingly, my 7 yr old has only lost one hoodie. She lost it in Kindergarten and still everytime we walk by the lost and found she says we should check to see if it's there.
At least you have a picture of that adorable first-day-of-school outfit! Plus, great strategy for getting rid of clothes you don't like! (Although it doesn't earn you quite as many mean-mom points as "accidentally" trashing the raggedy clothes when the kids aren't looking...)
My daughter snuck her new stuffed animal to school, then lent it to her friend who took it home and devestated my daughter by first letting the baby sister of the house drool on the toy and then accidentally letting her dog chew a few of the toys body parts off. I think she wished she had listened to my no-taking-toys-to-school rule after that.
My daughters Minnie Mouse ring that she bought herself at Disneyland last May. She made it all summer long, swimming, hiking, whatever and never loses it. She goes to 1st grade one day and some nasty little girl talks her into letting her try it on and then "loses" it. I wasn't so upset about the days of the week Tinkerbell plastic and paper rings she let the little girl wear too, as all total, she had a ring on every finger.
Just this week I picked up my pre-schooler and another child was wearing her sweater. I asked the teacher to get it back off of the child for me and she told me that the little girl told her it was hers. I said of course she did - she is 3! So I gave her a look that said if you don't get it back - I will! She got it back for me!
Jana, you have a long twelve years ahead of you. Enjoy.
A friend ordered super fancy name labels off the internet, fancy ones for clothes and shoes, some for socks, lots for cups and lunch box items that are dishwasher safe...I wondered why I hadn't thought of that years ago.
I am willing to bet that Hannah came home just fine, they almost never lose the stuff you would actually like them to.
OK, I think I may be blasted for this one, but at the end of every school year I take my class of children around our gym hall where the unclaimed clothes are laid out. We could easily be talking over a £1000 of kit. Most times, the kids walk straight back out, empty handed. At the start of every year, i tell my kids to WRITE THEIR NAMES ON THE TAGGIES of the clothes. Nope, don't get expensive labelly thingies that fall off, don't spend hours sewing labels on and good old biro works 9/10 times. DD has just started nursery, with everything labelled in biro. By Daddy :D !!!
Ha, she told you to just deal with it huh? Maybe you should hide all of her favorite clothes at home and then when she asks you where they've gone tell her to just deal with it.
Whoa. Cute outfit, stinky attitude. lol.
My daughter lost 6 gloves in one winter. None of them matched. She now has 3 pairs of gloves that don't match and I like it that way. hahaha.
p.s. Amy pickledpigsfeet, i would have CRIED! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
My son lost his big cozy winter coat the week before the biggest snow storm of the year. We looked for it for weeks. Caved an bought another one. Put name tags on every possible corner of the new one. Only lost the hood so far.
I laughed at her "just face it mom it is gone." My kids lose stuff like crazy too but it usually shows up later. Maybe it is in the school lost and found.
Mostly my dignity!!
I know that story! I alwasy love when they tell me I don't know? How they manage to lose things from home to school and make is still one of those great mysteries in life. BTW, how is the little dracula baby of yours. Is he completely better. I am assuming he is since you haven't written on him in a long time.
My son lost one shoe at school one day. How that happened is beyond me.
While it stinks to lose stuff that you spent good money on...it sure is a funny/cute story!
how about his bus pass? twice? in the first month of school?????!!!
I love it! My boys use to be like that except I promised them they'd be going to school in their underwear if they decided to "misplace" their sweatshirts, hats, esp gloves and long sheeve shirts!
It's worked, now backpacks come back completely full of stuff!!
My girls, on the otherhand, would die before they'd lose a headband, hair clip or any cute thing they wear to school because they don't want to go back un-accessorized!! Hate to be the hard-core Mom but shoots... how many $20s of the dollars do I have to spend on that little cutie stuff??
You would not believe the HUGE container at school that is already filled with sweaters, shoes, backpacks, sippy cups, binders, and other random things. It's unbelievable. Every Christmas and the at the end of the school year the remaining contents that aren't picked up go to Deseret Industries.
My son is famous for losing coats and one really nice camera at scout camp.
My kids will often ask me where something is and I usually know exactly where it is but my response has been. Well. . .if you'd put it away then you'd know where it is, wouldn't you?
My daughters could not find most of the items that they wore from the first week of school. They were upset when they came home and looked in their closets and found standard issue 1.00 clearance navy sweatpants and 1.00 T's and sweatshirts. I don't have to worry how much they were, there are seven outfits each, if they lose them then we will home school, and I have worned them that my day doesn't include recess, snack time,rest time, playing with playdough, painting, so it will be long, very long and cold 'cause they will be naked.
My oldest son lost his lunch box twice in one year. I told him if he lost it again he would have to brown bag it. He did. I decided instead of buying the lunch bags, I put it plastic Wal-Mart bags. Oh same kid kept losing his scissors. I bought him a hot pink pair and wrote his name on them with a sharpie. He tried so hard to lose them but they kept finding him :)
PANTS. My eldest leaves everything at school, and I pick through the lost and found as if I am looking for a long-lost relative.
But by far, my favorite, was PANTS. I don't even want to know how you leave those at school.
no! no! NO! please say they grow out of this?! please some one tell me kids get responsible by the time they hit 1st grade!
no wonder my sisters in law make their children buy their own stuff with their own hard earned cash.
so far my girls experience of loosing jackets, shirts, jewelry, and toys is limited thanks to their preschool being tiny and only 2 classes have access to their playground. it also helps that I drop them off and pick them up thus gathering all the items that would other wise "grow legs and disappear"
I have definitely taken for granted this position it keeping track of their junk.
We have never lost anything at school yet that I know of. Knock on wood. But my middle child brings home stuff that belongs to others. A lot. My favorite was a silver jewelry box with red lining. I asked him why he had it and he rolled his eyes and explained that this little girl gave it to him because she LOVES him. I asked him if her mother knew she was giving things like this away and he told me he didn't know why she wouldn't know. Then I reminded him that he gives things away and then gets in trouble when I find out. "OH yeah" was his reply.
LOL - do you hear the Twilight Zone theme music when you go to that school ;) My dd has lost an iPod and a cell phone at school, so cherish the fact it was only a sweater.
My husband worked at a pricate school last year and after something was in the lost and found 30 days the employees were able to have it--since my husband found the stuff (he did janitorial) he got first pick, all in all we got 4 Ipods (1 was an ipod touch, the other one was super expensive too and came with thousands of songs), A handheld playstation, we have yet to get a plug for it though so we don't know if it works, but it came with a case and quite a few games, not ot mention 2 laptops, as well as a lot of backpacks and my husband got quite a bit of clothes--he watched a kid throw away my ipod cause it fell on the ground and he thought it was broken, one of our laptops was in the trash too, it was after a benefit that a guy was leaving, tripped and fell and thought the laptop was broken so he threw it away--luckily my husband was smarter and realized since it was a brand new laptop it was still under warranty
anyhow, his pay was crappy but the stuff we got from that job was stuff we would have never been able to afford otherwise, it just amazed us the type of stuff people threw away
Hey, atleast no more mumus!! :)
I'm willing to bet the Hannah Montana atrocity managed to make it safely home didn't it?
my kids are not in school yet and won't be for a few more years but I must say thank you to all of your comments and especially the original post. wow! the things I have to look forward to!
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