**** Soap box alert!!!
I’ll admit part of tonight’s post is just pure frustration and as soon as I’m finished, this Mama is going to bed!
First of all, I’m a rule follower in my profession. That being said, I’ll begin. I hate to be late. I follow rules. However, I’m not so stupid as to think that sometimes “LIFE” will not intervene and that you just roll with the punches.
Well, at my place of employment, we are “supposed” to be at work by 7:15 am. I diligently try to make this happen on a daily basis. I’ll admit, I’ve been known to say that if anyone had to kiss goodbye to my little Lj every morning, they would be challenged to get to work on time too! But this year, I’ve made a personal commitment to not only not being late but also being present as many days as I can even when sick. (take last week as an example… I was sick 3 1/2 days of the 5 and still made it to work and did not miss!)
So far this year, I’ve been late once. This was early in the year and on that particular morning, Lj was having a melt-down. This is NOT typical of her and was hard to deal with. That morning, I clocked in over 4 minutes late. I knew I was late and no matter how I felt about it, I accepted it and just moved on. Geoff and I began to deal with our little non-morning girl on a different basis and so far it’s been working. And by the way… we have a whopping three minutes grace for the purposes of no one’s clock being exact on any particular day. Technically, I am supposed to clock in by 7:15 but have “grace” until 7:18.
** Side note… she is not a girl to be rushed awake regardless if it is morning or nap or whatever and she like any little self-proclaimed “princess” reserves the right to be pampered and cuddled or snuggled before you can get her into full swing. Honestly, some mornings the first thing out of her mouth is “I need to snuggle-snuggle (in the most pitiful voice you can imagine!)”. She’s been this way from DAY ONE.
So here comes today… she wakes up, wants to “snuggle” and still somehow we get her dressed for school and get out of the house with me just enough time to get her to Mom’s and then me to work without me NOT being late.
But on the way to Mom’s as I play my favorite CD that Geoff has made me of our church’s Christian music she begins to quietly sing to my favorite song. As I heard her, I told her I would love to hear her sing and very reverently begins to sing the precious words. I was just stunned. The song is over 5 minutes long and she knew all the words (even though some are not really clear). I listened and just felt so proud to listen to our 3 year old sing a song that speaks so strong to me and her voice was that of an angel.
The next song came on and she knew it too… I listened in quiet pleasure and drove to Mom’s. By the time we got to Mom’s she was singing song #3! (These were songs she has never sung for us and not a children’s bible song either!) So once we got inside I shared for just a few minutes Lexi’s beautiful singing and how very proud of her I was with my Mom. I left her very proud of herself and me, very full of pride as a mother.
Then traffic hits… the normally quiet trip to work is more filled with cars and as I need to turn right, there are two people ahead needing to turn left. I could have broken the law and cut through the gas station but no…. I refuse to put the law or anyone’s safety at risk or the sake of a time clock. Finally, I turned in to our road to work and had to drag behind parents who were taking extra time to avoid a longer wait because they can’t drop their kids off until 7:20. Finally, I get to the staff parking lot, run inside and begin to clock in. Yes, they do give us 3 minutes grace time to clock in. And after I went inside, I evidently had too much lotion on my hands because the clock kicked my fingerprint out and I had to start over again. By the time I was successful at getting clocked in, it was 7:18:04. Busted!
Busted I say! Three seconds busted me! I still made it to my morning post and did my morning duty. No students were at risk and nothing bad happened but by lunch time, I went to check out my teacher’s “mailbox”, I had a very special envelope with a document for me to sign that I signed in late and that it was my “heaven forbid!” second time late. I was also informed that IF I sign in late 5 times in one year, I will be disciplined with a GTDRI. (Ga. teacher’s duties and responsibilities instrument and put on a PDP (professional development plan). ) I signed the thing and DO know that I was technically 3 seconds late. So how exactly do you retrain a teacher who is 3 seconds late??? Is being late a lesser offense than one who can’t teach at all. I guess I’m on my soap box because my 3 seconds vs. my commitment to my students and their education seems to pale in great regards compared to many educators who do nothing to encourage their students at all! Seriously… are you kidding me!!???
As a parent, I’d gladly accept the PDP as a result of getting a GTDRI in exchange to hearing and being so proud to hear my 3 1/2 year old sing praises to the Lord and relishing in listening to her very innocent voice sing praises to our Lord Jesus Christ.
I for one, feel proud that each day we listen to the praise music we do and that TODAY, I was late to work by a whole 3 seconds because my precious baby girl on this day decided to sing to me and let me know that she is learning by our example. That is a job that I can claim “well done”. And even if I am not considered to do a job well done by signing in 3 seconds late… I KNOW it WAS and it IS!
