It’s that time of year again…
That time of year that makes a parent’s skin crawl.
If you look carefully right about now, you’ll see fathers and mothers alike closing their blinds, locking their doors, and huddling together anxiously.
Though the flowers are blooming and the pools are open, the minds of parents are heavy with the knowledge that before it’s too late:
They will have to re-enroll their child for school.
Not saying that the kids getting back in school is bad.
But the re-enrollment process was apparently designed to remind all of us adults how much we hated school when we were young.
{Side Note: This is largely satirical. Our school district is amazing and does a great job. I’m also thankful for online applications!}
Every year, I type in my child’s birthdate twenty-two times.
Every year, I tell them that no, in the last three years, I have not worked in the forestry industry.
Every year, I have to access 137 drop down menus to click “Yes” or “No” regarding possible health conditions.
Every year, I enter our emergency contact information on 442 separate pages.
And yet every year, they don’t know who to call when our kid runs a temperature.
Jokes aside, there is one question every single year that always trips me up.
Makes me pause.
Makes me tear up, honestly.
And that question is:
Where does your child stay at night?
And here are some the options:
• Home/Apartment owned or rented by parent(s)/guardian
• With a relative or friend (family does not have their own residence)
• In a hotel/motel
• In a shelter
• At a campsite
• In an automobile
• Other
In an automobile.
In.
An.
Automobile.
And that’s not an option under “Other.”
There is an actual option for “my child stays at night IN AN AUTOMOBILE.”
There are parents who have clicked that option.
There are parents who, signing their child up for school, have had to declare that at night, my child sleeps in an automobile.
Think about that.
Think about having to click that option.
And that could be my kid’s best friend at school.
That could be the sweet kid with the great sense of humor and mad dodgeball skills.
That could be the kid who is really struggling to stay awake in class each day.
And is falling behind . . .
. . . . . . . And further behind . . . . . . .
And then one day, when they can’t get into college because they fell so far behind, someone has the audacity to say, “They should solve their own problems instead of waiting for society to help.”
That could be the car in front of me at drop off, the one from the early 90’s with the busted bumper being held together by duct tape.
That could be the car that a child slept in the night before.
I know all sorts of people make all sorts of choices.
I know bad things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.