Confessions of a Preschool Mom

I forgot about Show and Tell yesterday. I didn’t even realize it until I glanced at Luke’s monthly preschool calendar on our fridge this morning. There it was, in cheerfully bold printed letters, in the block for Friday, October 21: “Show and Tell!”

I had a brief moment of denial- Surely I must be looking at the wrong month. My former self (the Carrie who was organized, orderly, and who was a stickler for schedules, appointments, and list-writing) NEVER would have let her son go to preschool empty-handed for his monthly Show and Tell day. I felt absolutely awful. I quickly fired off an apology e-mail to Luke’s teacher (yes, it was before 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning), stating how sorry I was that I forgot about Show and Tell, that hopefully it didn’t cause a problem that Luke had nothing to share/show his classmates…

Next I sent an e-mail to my friend who also has a child in Luke’s class, which said something like, “What an incompetent preschool Mom I am! I didn’t realize yesterday was Show and Tell… What did you send in with Emma?”

When Luke woke up an hour later, I gave him a good morning hug, snuggled with him on the couch, and gently asked, “Was it Show and Tell Day at school yesterday?”

“Yes, Mommy,” he nodded solemnly.

“Did all of your friends bring in their things to show the class?” I inquired.

“Yes, everyone brought something,” he replied.

“Did anyone else forget about Show and Tell, honey?” I prodded.

“No Mommy, only I”, he earnestly replied, looking up at me with big brown eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Baby." I replied, heart breaking. "Were you sad?”

Luke paused, pondering this for a minute. “No,” he earnestly answered, and scampered away in search of Daddy, who was making pancakes in the kitchen.

Oh, the Mommy guilt! How could I have let my little guy down! We were so wrapped up in the anticipation of the preschool's Fall Festival last night that Luke didn’t mention Show and Tell at all yesterday (when he endured the usual 20 questions from Mommy about how his school day was). I should have been appeased by the fact that Luke didn’t seem to care today, but I wasn't.

Mark tried to make me feel better, and in vain, I tried to explain to him that it would be similar to him failing at a crucial task at work.

“Being a stay-at-home mom is my JOB,” I wailed. “HOW could I forget one simple task of putting an item in my preschooler’s bag?”

Mark nodded, hugged me, and searched for the right words to validate the apparent life-threatening seriousness that forgetting a Show and Tell item involved.

Then I glanced at my e-mail. The first item in my inbox was a reply from my friend, Kelly.

“Well, that makes two of us,” she wrote. “I had no idea that Show and Tell was yesterday. Emma didn’t take anything either…”

I breathed a little sigh of relief. Ok, I wasn't the only mom who forgot...

The second e-mail was from Luke’s preschool teacher (I guess we’re all up early on Saturdays):

“Please do not think twice about Show and Tell.” she wrote. “We had many that forgot to bring something. I usually send a reminder the day before, and I forgot, so really it’s my fault!”

Next followed a paragraph about how well Luke is doing at school, how happy he seems, and how he is adjusting beautifully to the daily routine and reaching out to the other children.

As if I didn’t adore Luke’s preschool teacher enough before this e-mail, her absolution of my faux pax made me fall completely in love with her. My spirit lifted immensely and my mood changed in an instant.

Completely guilt-free and happy once again, I had one remaining issue to tackle:

“LUKE, did EVERYONE bring things in yesterday for Show and Tell? What about Emma? Conner? Alex? Ava?” I rattled off several other classmates’ names…

Luke, unfazed, responded to each name with an fictional item that I now knew was completely fabricated.

LESSONS TO MOMMY:

1. Don’t believe everything that my 3 year-old tells me. Sometimes, he’s completely full of it… (or is a genius and was hoping to manipulate something from me in my weak moment of guilt).

2. Post the preschool calendar in a visible location and make sure to look at it every school day, to avoid future catastrophes caused by my forgetful "Mommy Brain".

3. Keep a random train/car/toy in the car, just in case the November Show and Tell date sneaks up on us, and we need to scramble in the carpool line and stick something in Luke's bag.

Back to the post-it-notes, checklists, and external memory aids it is. Oh, organization, how I love thee...