Controlling What I Can Control

Yesterday morning I dropped kids off to school and then went straight to the YMCA, leaving Rand at home to give Salinda a ride to school. Bart was home as well.

I got home at 9:10 and Rand looks at me and says, "Salinda never went to school." I went to her room. She had overslept. Apparently Rand had not even checked with her nor told Bart that she hadn't gone to school. This is the 2nd time he has done this. The first time he took her friend to school and brought her back home so she could go back to bed but never told anyone that was the case. We thought she was in school the whole day as she didn't make a sound and slept the whole day. I even went to pick her up... but anyway.

So I woke her up twice. The second time I let her know that there would be no excuse written and that if she wasn't ready soon she would be considered to be absent all day and the "no electronics until the next morning" rule would apply. She was finally ready and went to school around 10:30. When she asked me to write a note (they have to have one to get in the building) I wrote "Salinda overslept and thus she is arriving at school late." If the school wants to rule that as an excused tardy that's their business, but I certainly didn't ask them to excuse her.

This morning, we got ready to leave and the kids reported that Jimmy was sitting in the family room, unshowered in his boxers. Rand was leaving to take Salinda and then go to work. Bart is out of town all day. The neighbors left with Tony on time, and a few minutes later I left with everyone else. And I had planned to head to the coffee shop this morning.

The former me (the control freak on steroids) would have never been able to follow through with my plan. But we live less than 2 miles from the school. He's almost 17. He has a bike. And that school doesn't require a note.

I don't know where he is. He could be still sitting in his boxers in the family room. He could be waiting for me to come home to see if I'll give him a ride. I didn't tell him where I was going, because he didn't speak to me this morning. He could have given up by now and walked to school. But I have a cell phone and he can call at any time.

Salinda missed a few classes yesterday. She'll have to make up the work. Same will be true of Jimmy today. But I'm not going to get all wrapped up in the whole thing. I'm at the coffee shop getting work done. And later I'll find out what happened.

It's a lot better being able to live this way than the days where I felt like it was my responsibility to make kids this ages do what they were supposed to do.....