Didn't you get the memo?

If you have any children in school, you know that school is a constant source of papers. From homework and crafts to notes from the teacher to Market Day order forms...there's ALWAYS something in my son's folder. Some evenings I get it all out and go through it. Other evenings, I'm lucky to even get the papers out of the folder. Take my being a working mother and combine it with my history of being a paper packrat, and you have yourself one big pile. Most nights, I am able to look through the papers and at least sort out which ones are important. If they're important, but not urgent, I hang them on the fridge.

Last Thursday was Parent-Teacher conference day at my son's school. Probably a week before that, there was a note sent home from the teacher about conferences. I quickly scanned the sheet, double checked that the date and time were what I thought they were supposed to be. I then added the note to the important (but not urgent) ones on the fridge. The day of the conference, when I went to pick the kids up from daycare, I ran into one of the other Kindergarten moms. She was headed in to pick up her daughter, but had her Kindergarten son with her. Being the nosey bug that I am, I asked her why he was with her and not at daycare. "Conferences" she says. "You actually took him with to the conference?" I asked. "Yes, we're supposed to." Oh phooey...how could I have missed this. Oh yes...the note...the one on the fridge that I didn't read. I quickly expressed my gratitude towards her for saving me from embarassment and hurried home to read the note. Sure enough, right there on the page..."This conference will involve student attendance and participation."

Perhaps I will actually have to start reading his notes from school if I want to avoid potential embarassment in the future.