Absent

Bethay likes to try new things. She particulary wants to try things that she sees the kids at school doing (except for eating what they eat, more's the pity). Her latest obsession was that she wanted to be absent from school. She'd been pestering me for weeks to be absent.

I didn't really get the point. I mean, she's still at the age where school is a lot of fun. She'd get to go to school, and see her classmates and play games, and most importantly, have recess. I tried to tell her that kids who are absent miss class and have extra homework. She'd miss out on whatever was going on that day. None of it made a dent. She still wanted to be absent.

Finally, I gave in and told her that she could be absent on Thursday, October 6th. Her whole face lit up, and she was content. I neglected to tell her that there was no school that day anyway because it was a Teacher Development Day. I figured that she wouldn't know the difference, and she'd be happy because she got to be "absent".

I underestimated my little girl. By the time the Wednesday before had rolled around, she'd figured it out. She became upset again, because all the kids were going to be absent that day, so it didn't really count. She decided that she was going to be absent on the "third Thursday". The Thursday following the teacher prep day was parent/teacher conferences, so she just decided she'd go for the Thursday following that. I tried to tell her that it wasn't going to work that way, but she was set on it.

As it turned out, it was a moot point. Meagan had been getting sick. Nothing serious, just a light cought and some congestion. It wasn't really enough to keep her home, but she and Bethany both had had a rough night, and were pretty tired. I went to get them up the Wednesday after parent/teacher conferences, and they were completely out. I was tired myself, so I decided to just let them sleep, and went back to bed myself. Meagan, Sean and I eventually got up around 8:45, but Bethany just kept sleeping. I'd thought about sending them to school late, after Bethany decided to grace us with her presence, but she didn't roll out of bed until 10:00. By that time, it wasn't really worth it to send Meagan to school, and Bethany was so excited to be "absent" that I just let it go. I decided that if she could sleep that late, then she needed a break. She came down and watched TV with Meagan and Sean, saying things like, "I'm sick. That means I get to be absent and stay home and watch TV." It was kind of cute and funny. The best thing of all, though, was that she got her turn to be absent, and hasn't bothered me about it again.