So… I had a hard time coming up with a topic for this week… mainly because I waited until the last minute to come up with a topic. But today is Little Man’s first day of school as a 4th grader and yesterday Q started kindergarten. I have no idea how I have 2 kids in school. Seriously, how did that happen.
Thanks this week go to Chris Ring, The Wife, Maj McArmypants, Nadolny, and Bruce.
1. What do you remember most about your first day of school?
How bummed I was about summer being over.
2. First Day of school - excited or terrified?
More excited than terrified.
3. Best 1st day of school, why?
Freshman college… because college is/was cool.
4. Why do Moms insist on dressing their sons with the sole purpose of getting their ass kicked on the 1st day of school?
I think you may be reliving a memory here… Did your mom dress you as a little sailor and give you a lolly? How old ARE you?
5. Homework on the first day of school, WTF?!
I know, seriously.
6. What were your first day of school rituals? Obvious, but I thought I’d ask.
I think I was just happy to be getting out of the house.
7. Did your mom cry on your first days of school? (I cried today, because I love our children. Not sure this was your experience.)
If she did, it was after she was out of my sight. My bet is no, for my mom is numb to the world, lest reality creep in and crack the precarious charade she has constructed to make her seem well-adjusted to the world.
8. In Iowa there’s a law that the first day of school can’t happen until after Labor Day because of the heat. Was this true in Alabama?
I don’t know if it was a law, but I don’t remember school starting in August as a kid. That being said, it seems that school is starting for some peeps in Alabama this week.
9. Did you have “first day of school” clothes? I did. They were always what we bought at Montgomery Ward or JC Penny. They were hot and scratchy and sometimes involved a sweatered material. In others words, they were wholly inappropriate for the climate but oh so cute.
I did not have “first day of school clothes.”
10. Whatever happened to Timothy? Do you think eventually they made him stay? That or he just goes the first day every year and is scheduled to graduate around the year 5579.
Not sure what happened to Tim… Backstory, Timothy was a kid that went to the same kindergarten as Maj McArmpants and myself. There were a number of occasions that were, how do we say, less than impressive intellectually. He was not bright and also, I think repeated kindergarten 3 times or so. It truly is/was a bit sad.
11. What grade were you in when you took the bus the first day?
Hmmm… Probably 10th.
12. I see there is a lot of effort to prevent bullying now. Basically, they schedule the older kids on different days and all sorts of crazy stuff. Your thoughts?
I think it is misguided. Bullying has always been around, and will always be around. That being said, I think bullying has elevated to a point where it is a polarized version of what we dealt with as kids. We may have had to walk uphill in 3 feet of snow both ways, but the bullies that are around today are something else..
13. What was the biggest culture shock your very first day of kindergarten? Coming from a largely isolated childhood, it was the exposure to how other children behaved and having to ask to do stuff like go the bathroom or go get water.
You are onto something there, I think it was getting permission to do normal things.
14. So back in kindergarten if I recall, you really sucked. You seem alright to me now, but what do you think your biggest malfunction was back then?
Well, let’s be clear, YOU felt that I really sucked. Those are your perceptions and not necessarily a real truth.
15. What would the worst first day of school you can envision entail. In a Ferris Buehler’s Day Off style (Now you are on Whose Line is it Anyway).
Hmmm… well, without the Ferris Buehler’s Day Off caveat, I would have gone with a multiple bus collision with a train carrying radioactive gasoline and monsters, but Ferris style… I would say it would start with not having milk for cereal, so you have to get to the grocery store before the bus gets you, and you miss the bus, but in doing so you get pancakes from a local diner because the cute college waitress finds you interesting. You make it to school at 2nd period, and to not be considered tardy, you have to pretend to be Hans, the exchange student from Switzerland. Cut to meeting up with the cute waitress for dinner at a local Italian restaurant… cue Yellow’s “Oh, yeah!” and roll credits.
16. First day of school in college entailed?
I took 5 classes my first semester, so day one was 3 courses. Calc I, Intro To English I, Drawing I, and my Freshman orientation class. All syllabi, no homework, but the dy was full of running across campus and getting to and from class. It was glorious..
17. First day with a newborn (you know, parent school).
The wife was pretty seriously injured during childbirth, such that she was unable to walk for a few weeks and then only with great effort, so that first week of being home with Little Man was crazy hard and busy. Best OJT, I have ever had. I really had to jump in with both feet for the boy to survive.
18. Did you do lamaze or some other birthing class? If so, what were your first impressions
We did, and the first class was pretty innocuous, because all we did was meet who else was in the class… most of the people there should not have bred.
19. Class or teacher most excited about? Most dreaded?
Most excited: Printmaking when I was a studio art major in college
Most Dreaded: Introduction to Analysis I when I was a math major
20. Bring your own lunch, or get the school lunch? What was for lunch?
I typically brought my lunch, until I got to high school, and then I just skipped lunch entirely. I think it was a ham sandwich with some Doritos or something like that… not memorable at all.
To recap:
Holy shot I have 2 kids in school
WTF?!?!?!
Did some sketches for the kiddos this week
Little Man wanted a cheetah for something at school… even though he just started today
Q wanted an Ostrich because Little Man got a cheetah
Not much else to speak of
I start up school on the 26th
Pretty sure that will be to no fanfare whatsoever
Special thanks this week to Nadolny and Bruce who came through with the last few questions at the 9th hour
Have a great weekend everyone