The Teacher Meet-and-Greet

Today my kids' elementary school hosted an open house of sorts. The purpose of the event is for students to meet their new teachers and drop off their school supplies in their classrooms.

We made through all the three classrooms without incident. This is shocking because Cameron was on fire this morning and I had to spend several minutes in each of the rooms filling out forms (which usually spells disaster). On our way out, we decided to pop our heads into Kellen's first grade teacher's room to say hello. While Kellen and I chatted with his former teacher, an announcement came over the school's loudspeaker.

"Will the parent of Cortlen Mathews please come to the front office."

That's when I noticed that one of my sons didn't make it into the classroom with us.

"Fantastic," I said and ran out the door.

On our way to the office, I was stopped by no less than 10 people who told me (in case I didn't already know) that my presence was requested up front.

So much for this blowing over quietly.

Once I retrieved my son, we headed into the parking lot where we bumped into one of our neighbors and her kids.

"I lost one of my kids today!" the woman said, laughing.

I felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders. "Me too!" I cried and told her what happened. For a solitary moment, I didn't feel like the only bad parent on the planet.

After listening to my story, the woman wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Oh I didn't lose my son like that," she said. "I meant that he went home with one of his friends."

Awesome.