Ohhh, the Realtor Life… Home Alone

Because I am working mom, both my boys started daycare when they were 12 weeks old. While I can’t imagine ever feeling ready to leave your child in the hands of someone else for 8 hours a day, it is incredibly hard when they are so young. However, I was SO LUCKY that I found the perfect place with the perfect people to nurture and care for my babies in their home away from home.

One of the things I liked best about the school, was that they really encouraged creative thought… and creative thought is something Caleb thrives on. (He is a lot like me- he is a story teller and LOVES being able to hold someone’s attention with the words he is speaking). In order to encourage their creative minds, every Monday in his Pre-K classroom, the teachers would ask the children what they did over the weekend, transcribe their answer in a journal and then have them draw a picture of it. The teachers would then hang the journal entries above the kid’s cubbies so all the parents could read them as they grabbed book bags, coats, etc from their kid’s cubby. I always made sure I was the one picking up Caleb on Mondays- I absolutely LOVED journal day! I mean, after the stresses of a long day at work, what better way to wind down than to immerse yourself in thoughts of a 3 year old.

One evening in particular, I bee-bopped over to Caleb’s cubby, so excited to read what my little guy remembered about the weekend. Other kid’s entries talked about playing games with their parents, going to a fun event or taking a trip, and this is what my child had to say,

“I was sad because my mom and dad were at work and Zack was at school and I was home alone.”

Um, what?

No. No, no, no, no.

I had SO many questions, and once we got in the car, I let them fly. I asked why he wrote what he did- and if he understood that making up stories that weren’t true could get mommy and daddy in trouble. I told him that telling the truth was one of the most important things he could do as a little boy.

So the next week, I am SUPER excited to see what he has chosen to say- I mean, we had a REALLY good talk. He knows that making up stories is not good (and could get mommy arrested)- and so I just KNOW he has said something sweet. I enter his classroom, walk over to his cubby and read this:

“I did not stay at home by myself.”

NO! Nooooooooooo. This child is seriously messing with me. Now it just looks like I coached him to say we didn’t leave him at home so that we didn’t look like bad parents. This one was even WORSE than the previous week because now we certainly looked guilty. No longer was his entry the creative musings of a 3 year old, it was now the scared regurgitation of a poor baby that is subject to a threatening home environment. At this point, I have to say SOMETHING. I approach his teachers and tell them that I really didn’t coach him what to say. We just had a talk about being truthful, and how words have meaning- and he must’ve really taken it to heart. I explained how I was so embarrassed and made sure they knew we didn’t EVER leave him home alone.

At the end of the day, we all had a good laugh- but I will NEVER forget the feeling I had as I read those innocent little journal entries. You don’t know PANIC until you’ve been falsely (or in some cases, truthfully) outed by your child at their school. I am waiting with bated breath until it happens again- because I know my child and I KNOW he is not done with me. Until next time…

Oh… and don’t ever let your kid watch “Home Alone” before they mature enough to discern fiction from reality. I figured that out the hard way.