Latchkey Kids

So yesterday was Roxy’s first day of school, AND the first day EVER she took the bus home herself, thus officially becoming a latchkey kid. After going over the house rules several times, I felt pretty secure that she was ready for her first real taste of independence. You may recall that she wasn’t too keen on going to fifth grade, mostly because none of her friends are in her class this year. (Being the exemplary mom that I am, I told her that this will be a good thing, since she will have less distractions and learn more. She didn’t buy it.) But on her first morning, she actually seemed a little excited. She had her brand new backpack all loaded up with the school supplies she bought herself at Staples (apparently the ones I ordered from the PTA weren’t “cool” enough), and her housekeys, which consisted of about 20 keychains and 2 actual keys. I kept drilling rule number one into her head, which was “call mom IMMEDIATELY when you get home,” and judging by the eye-rolling and heavy sighs, it was sufficiently drilled. I dropped her off at the bus stop and spent the whole day at work hoping to God that everything was going ok with her at school, and hoping even more that she made it home afterwards.

I kept finding myself looking up at the clock, and wondering how her day was going. When it finally reached 3:00, I wondered if she found the right bus. I started second-guessing my decision to let her go home by herself, even though the neighbor was always home by 4:00, she had all the phone numbers she would need, and honestly, she was a pretty responsible kid. When the phone rang at 3:40 and the receptionist told me it was my daughter, I felt a HUGE weight lift off my chest. “So, you made it home?” My poor daughter, apparently in distress, replied, “Yes, but mom? The toilet really looks fine, and I don’t think it is broken? Actually, I THINK it is still the OLD toilet, but it looks FINE… It is back in the bathroom and mom? I REALLY have to go, so do you think that maybe it is ok?” At this point, I cracked up. You see, the floor guy was coming to fix the floor this week (actually, today), and I had told Roxy that on WEDNESDAY she may want to make sure she goes to the bathroom before she gets home, since our new toilet may not be installed yet. Apparently she got mixed up, and thought the whole toilet thing was going on at that moment. She was VERRRY relieved (no pun intended), and promised to call right back as soon as she (ahem) took care of business.

So I hung up, and true to her word, she called back within two minutes. When I asked her how her first day was, I got the obligatory heavy sigh, and then she proceeded to tell me how AWFUL it was. Apparently the ONLY time she could see her friends was for, like, TEN minutes during recess, she didn’t have enough time to eat all of her lunch (but WAS allowed to eat whenever she wanted throughout the class, as long as it was subtly), and she pretty much didn’t like anyone in her class. I asked how the teacher was, and she did admit that the teacher seemed nice. (But from her tone, I could tell she wasn’t even too sure about that yet.) I asked her if she had homework (no), then I asked what they did all day. Can you guess the answer? You got it – NOTHING. Apparently the whole day at school everyone just sat there. Or at least, that’s what Roxy wants me to think.

While I tried to pry a little more info out of her, she was reading her “house rules” list out loud and pretty much ignoring me. This was what I heard: “Empty lunchbox. Ok. Done that. Feed the cats. (SIGH) Cats, do you need food? You know, I SHOULD be getting paid for this…” Finally, enough was enough and she told me that everything was FINE and I could hang up now. Which I did, satisfied that although she sounded really put out by my questions, she would be fine for the hour and a half before I got home.

Hard to believe how fast these kids grow up nowadays. But they are still entertaining, at least.

And on a side note, because I KNOW you are curious, a few tidbits of information unrelated to school OR latchkey kids:

*** Mr. South Side is apparently strategically planning his speech as to why we need to be together, since I haven’t heard from him yet. And based on the fact that SSC TOLD him to call me, I have no doubt that he will when he feels confident enough with his speech. Which, of course, I will relentlessly shoot down.

*** My bathroom floor is finished, my new toilet is installed, and it actually cost considerably less than I had “guesstimated.” Which is a good thing. And it is also good that I decided to tear up the old tiles last week, because apparently the guy who fixed my floor said that the toilet had been leaking like FOREVER and they almost weren’t able to save the floorboards. But they did. Which is also good, because I think what they were implying is that my floor (which is also my neighbor’s ceiling) could’ve caved in at any given second. And THAT would have been verrrrrry bad.

That’s all for now. Oh, and to Amber – thanks for the link! If anyone reading today found me through her – welcome! And I hope I can keep you as entertained as she seems to be. (Although I’m not quite sure if she is just easily amused or if my life is really that pathetically funny. Whatever, I guess.)