Colby's Turn

Since I agreed to take on Connor's school yearbook, I have spent LOTS of time at Mitchell Intermediate School. I do help at Colby's school; but, I have not become the daily fixture as I am at Mitchell. Well, today I had lunch duty at Buckalew. Now, I NEVER signed up for lunch duty while Connor was at Buckalew. Feeling guilty about not having equal volunteer time, I find myself volunteering for things for Colby I never would have before.

The first time I had lunch duty was about 8 weeks ago. Keep in mind this is only a 30 minute lunch, it just feels much longer... As the other mothers and I were leaving, one proclaimed she was sure she had contracted strep throat or pink eye for sure!

You know how when you feed your children at home and you look down under their chairs and see what a mess that one child made?? Multiply that by 150!!! The first time at lunch duty, I had never seen so much spilt milk, crushed crackers, food-crusted faces. Yuck!

Well, today I went in thinking that I really needed plastic gloves and wipes! However, I was pleasantly surprised that these first graders are maturing. Now don't get me wrong, with 150 little boys and girls, there was still spilt milk and a few crushed crackers; but, not as many!

The one thing that is very hard to control as a mom is when a child asks for something to be opened from their lunch -- DON'T use your own teeth! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to open a ketchup packet with my teeth. It would have made things go so much faster!

Colby was so excited that I was there to help and even learned how to buy lunch by himself. He has been afraid to do it alone. When he found out I was going to be on lunch duty, he asked if I would help him. He ate that whole chicken sandwich in no time and then informed me that he was going to buy twice a week just like Connor!

He also informed me of something that I probably could have lived without as a mom. It does prove why I did not get an Education Degree in College like my mom wanted. She said it is the best career for mothers who would have the same time off as their kids. Yes, that is true... But Colby informed me that another little boy peed (is that how you spell the past tense of pee???) on his shoe! OK. Why would I want to deal with daily problems like these from other people's children?!?

I guess I'm going to need those plastic gloves today after all!!