What Is More Important?

Excuse me while I vent...ARGH!!!!! Today something so unbelievable happened at my work, I am still in a state of shock. My place of work is a private, Christian preschool that serves 96 wonderful families. Most of the time. I have the privilege of being the director and have the most awesome staff of teachers ever. All of the time.

Morning classes went just fine, and a group of kiddos went on to "Lunch Bunch." This is an extra hour where kiddos can bring their lunch from home and eat and play with their friends. Oh yes, and it gives the parents an extra hour to themselves. At 12:30 pm, Lunch Bunch ends and kids either go home or to the afternoon class. Well, today at 12:50 pm, the Lunch Bunch teacher brought me a little 3-year old boy that had not yet been picked up by his mom. I called mom and she said she'd be right there (gave no explanation). She did not walk into my office until 1:30 pm! For those of you who are doing the math, that is ONE HOUR after pick-up time!

While the little boy was in my office, a horrible, but familiar, odor wafted past my desk. "Honey, do you have to go to the bathroom?" "No." I've been doing this a while and know not to immediately trust everything out of a child's mouth. Sure enough, the little boy didn't have to go to the bathroom because he already had in his pants. And it was the worst kind...think pea soup! Now, here is a question for all you parents -- what would you do?

Well, this mom came in talking on her cell phone. Without pausing, she took her son by the hand and started to walk out. I immediately said, "Excuse me, but he has had a humongous accident and I couldn't change him because his extra clothes were not in his back pack." Her response? "Oh, he never has accidents." HELLLLOOOO?! Do you not see and smell what I am smelling? But this mother had more important matters to tend to and gestured that she had a very important client on the phone and had "to run."

At this point, my annoyance with her blatant tardiness had vanished and was instead replaced with pure anger. In fact, I didn't trust myself to speak and had to sit down and breathe. After scrubbing the stain out on my carpet (it had better be gone by tomorrow!), I learned from one of the teachers that the mom had pulled up in her car much earlier but spent the time on her phone.

Let me just put this out there -- from a teacher's point-of-view, it is apparent from the first day of school, we can tell which children are valued and which children are "props." I would like to be able to tell you that this was a "fluke," but knowing this mother for several years I have to say it's not a surprise. Sure, this boy has every toy and video game on the market, and I'm sure his mom is so proud of her savvy techie kid. If I am still blogging in 15 years, I'll let you know what the outcome is...stay tuned.