How to send your kid off on a school trip.

[stomachmonkey]

1) Wake up at 3 am and wander around the house in a stupor while repeatedly asking her "do you have everything?" "are you sure?"
2) Drop her off at 4 am at her school for the bus to the airport. During the drive ask her "do you have everything?" "are you sure?"
3) Get home and go back to bed.
4) Wake up at 5 to someones phone ringing. Assume you just set an alarm on your phone by accident.
5) Try to ignore ringing.
6) Give up on ignoring ringing and go investigate.
7) Pick up various phones in the kitchen to find out which one is doing the ****ing ringing.
8) Notice a text from your daughter "I forgot my toiletries"
9) Call daughter and try to yell at her without waking up the rest of the house. Whisper yelling is harder than it sounds.
10) Retrieve toiletry bag from her room
11) Go move wifes car in your underwear
12) Accidentally trigger alarm on your car so run around the driveway in your underwear to keep from waking up the rest of the hood.
13) Drive to airport, in your underwear
14) Hand off bag to one of her teachers who is waiting out front
15) Drive home,
16) Drink lots of coffee
17) Sit on couch and ponder how unproductive the rest of your day is going to be.
18) Seriously contemplate changing your will to leave everything to the cats.

Honestly, if her glasses and contacts were not in the toiletry bag I would have told her tough ****, you had one job, now deal with it. But this is a National Orchestra Competition and if she can't see she can't play.

[dan79brooklyn]

[MRM]

One of the great lessons of my life was learning that other children were just as clueless as mine. Another great lesson was that they all do grow out of it. Eventually. Perhaps when they're in their 20s. My wife maintains I never did, so I take comfort in knowing that you can go through life as disorganized as a teenager.

You made a great point about not delivering the forgotten items, except in the case of a real emergency. Kids who forget coats or gloves, their favorite shirt, etc., learn to be more careful the next time around. This was not the time to reinforce that lesson, though. Perhaps the young lady needs to be introduced to the concept of a checklist when she returns home, so she remembers the difference between "everything" and "something".

[Jim Richards]

As parents, these are the moments we live for. Well done, stomachmonkey!

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

As parents, these are the moments we live for. Well done, stomachmonkey!

Agreed...except the drive to the airport in your underwear part - there is some "film at eleven" potential right there

[cstreit]

You forgot Step 19.

19) Get text. "I've landed safely. Realized that was my spare toiletries bag, Lol, I had it all along. ...but I forgot my sheet music, can you overnight it to me?"

[HardDrive]

Ah....parenthood. It makes you a better person. If it doesn't kill you first.

[motion]

Ahhhhh..... memories

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by cstreit

You forgot Step 19.

19) Get text. "I've landed safely. Realized that was my spare toiletries bag, Lol, I had it all along. ...but I forgot my sheet music, can you overnight it to me?"

No sheet music which is the part that makes the seeing critical.

The way this competition works is they are presented with a piece that they have never played. They get 8 minutes to read / "air play" while their conductor calls out important parts of the piece.

Then they play it basically cold.

Last year they took home 1st place. Best Freshman HS Orchestra in the country.

[Scott Douglas]

Way to come thru in the clutch dad.

That sounds like a real test of musicianship if you ask me.
Good luck!

[Baz]

Once you have a kid.......your #1 job in the world is to be the best Dad possible.

This morning....you succeeded in doing just that.

Congrats and well done, Scott.

[Steve Carlton]

Many years ago my dad was taking my 18 year old brother to SFO at 4am for his trip to Europe. They were taking my mom's '74 Plymouth Valiant and my brother was backing the car out of the garage with the driver's door open. The car had sashless windows, so when the window struck the garage door hinge, it shattered instantly. My dad, standing there watching, almost cheerfully said "I better go get my jacket." He had a big down parka that he used to wear while commuting to SF early in the morning in his '71 Alfa Spider with the top down and the heater cranked up.

[1990C4S]

At least you didn't get pulled over in your underwear...

But perhaps the teacher noticed.

[sammyg2]

Me: OK, I'll get her up and to the airport OK and on time, but you have to make the checklist.

Wife: sigh, I hate the checklist.

Me: gotta come up with the checklist or no deal.

Wife, OK, I'll make the checklist.

Over 24 years, she has learned NOT to give me an assignment or chore unless the details are written down. In detail. Like a list.

She hates that but northing gets forgotten because we go by the checklist.

If it isn't on the checklist, I didn't forget it. She did

[Steve Carlton]

Checklist:

1) Put on pants.

[legion]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Checklist:

1) Put on pants.

Parents are so unfair. How do your kids survive under such harsh rules!?

[PetrolBlueSC]

Regarding underwear: Teacher says: "Is that a pickle in your BVDs, or are you just happy to see me?"

For all people as stress levels increase, the amount of brain left to think reduces. In kids, this seems to be exaggerated. You sound like a really good dad.

[scottmandue]

You are a good dad!

I'll play...
My step daughter got an internship in India
Step one: Ignore stories of foreign women being raped/beaten to death in the streets.
Step two: Fill out a medium size mountain of paperwork.
Step three: Make thousands of calls/emails to hundreds of agencies that need to approve of the trip.

(all that was handled by wife and daughter)

Step four: One week before the trip... drive from L.A. to San Francisco to pickup passport/paperwork for travel and then back. (no, I didn't go and yes I suggested they just fly)

Trip was sponsored by the U of O so it was a group of students and they were escorted the whole way and everyone got back safe.

I was just dumbfounded by the whole L.A. to S.F to L.A thing.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife was telling me the story of one of her women friend's daughter going on a trip. The big push from the daughter to get to go was that she was old enough to be responsible and take care of herself on the trip. The mom relented and tried to help make decisions on what to pack and the daughter said she had it handled and did not need help!

Daughter returned after the one week trip and tried to hide from her mom behind other girls at the pickup point. It turns out the daughter forgot to pack any other pants or shorts or skirts. She had a ton of "cute" tops and blouses but no more jeans than what she wore to leave. She had to wear the same jeans all week.

Of course the first night she spilled something on the jeans and had the stain all week.

[sammyg2]

In all seriousness, one thing we learned early on when one of our kids were going on a trip:

Give em some emergency cash, just in case.
If they forget something they can usually replace it.
Plus it's fun to see their faces when they get home and realize you didn't forget about the money and you expect them to give it back