The First And Second Days of First Grade

Cody started school yesterday. His school has what they call a 'clap in' every year. On the first day, they line the halls with parents and teachers and everyone claps and cheers as the students walk to their classrooms. It's supposed to make them feel good about learning, I think that they just enjoy being cheered and applauded (at least, the first and second graders do, when this becomes boring, I don't know). It fits with the local parent mentality, but I'll get to that in a moment.

While doing this clap in, and the subsequent picture taking a few minutes later, I noticed something. You could tell the scrapbooker mom from the regular mom.

The regular mom- one or two pictures, taken in one or two places.

The scrapbooker mom- these are the moms that are saying 'ok, let's take a picture of you hanging up your backpack, let's take a picture of you sharpening your pencil, let's take a picture of you glaring at Mommy because you realized that you are the only child whose mother is still in the room and the teacher is waiting to start class....'

Growing up, I knew that the kids in this town were a little on the snobbish side. You get used to it, and figure that things will even out as you get older. Nope- wrong. What happens is that those kids I grew up with became the type of parents that I can not stand. And I had to deal with them today.

Our school has a circle drive, which is the only place where students can be picked up and dropped off (except for the bus riders). It's a huge pain in the read end to pick up or drop off students because it's very narrow and there aren't enough parking spots. Drop offs are hell. Literally. Because these parents, who believe that their children poop gold nuggets, can not let that precious child walk more than ten feet to the door. So- they sit and block traffic while they wait for one of the three prime drop off spots to open up. And then they nose in, take the spot, even though their mini van or SUV does not fit in that spot. Which means that they are still blocking traffic, and when it's time to leave, they can either a- back up into the passing lane or b- wait for the person ahead to pull out.

I droppped Cody off at 8 this morning. I didn't get home until 820. I live a half mile from the school. It took me twenty minutes to get out of the drive because people don't want to make their child walk. Tomorrow, I'm parking on the other side of the three prime spots to drop him off, at least then, when they're blocking traffic waiting for those spots to open, I'll be able to just get out and leave.

Yeah , Not Happening

I'm fickle that way. I love how Wordpress logs the IP addresses of commenters, but the few that comment on my blog are all really nice. I don't need to know that information, so- I'm staying here. :D

Besides, it would mean having to change my blog addy with every site that has it and that just ain't happening.

In other news- I will be away from my computer on Monday. My sister is having a baby! And I get to babysit! And yes, I'm excited! They're inducing, so yes, I know that she's having the baby on Monday (or Tuesday- but I don't want to scare her with 24 hour labor... not that I even know what that feels like...). Really, if her labor and delivery is anything like Cody's (and we can hope), then this baby will arrive that evening. Otherwise, I might have to have a little talk with him.

Be warned- I'm a proud aunt with a digital camera. Expect pictures.