Do You Still Need Me?

I'm sitting at the computer (obviously), with a steaming hot cup of coffee (decaf). In a quiet house. No kids. No husband. They are still in school. I love it.

Of course, the reason I'm home today is that I used a personal day so that I could help chaperone a field trip with my older daughter's 6th grade class. It was a minus tide today, and they were going to the beach to study marine life. And remember, I made a promise to myself to chaperone all the field trips I could. I also looked forward to a day in June at the beach.

Except for when I woke up this morning, it was pouring down rain. I optimistically listened to the weather forecast, which predicted the rain to let up in the afternoon (as of right now, it has let up...). Still, I dressed for the rain and cold in a turtle neck shirt, jeans, my hiking boots, and heavy rain coat. It was like 6th grade camp in the rain all over again.

I showed up at the middle school at the scheduled time, and all the chaperones were herded into the cafeteria for instructions. Most of us parents looked like they were ready for a rainy day at the beach. Except for one blonde mom who showed up in her pink sweats with a matching pink baseball cap and Starbucks cup in her hand. I'll call her Barbie...

We got our packets, and then headed to the classroom (there were 8 classrooms going...). I had been expecting 4 girls in my group, and instead had 8 kids. Nice kids, but still, I was to carry 8 lunches in my backpack? They didn't fit. So one of the girls brought her backpack too, but since they weren't supposed to carry anything else, I had to carry her backpack as well. I felt like a pack horse.

And the rain never let up. It poured. We were just soaking wet. The kids were to do two investigations with a meter square, laying it down somewhere and drawing exactly what they saw in their metered off section. They were to do this twice. It was raining so hard, and their papers got wet...It just wasn't real pleasant. My group of kids were nice, and many seemed to not get to the beach often...This was old hat stuff for Emily and I!

Finally we at our lunches standing under some trees for shelter, but still got dripped on constantly. Finally again, we got the message that we were leaving early. I was fine with that, although my group didn't really get time to see what the divers were bringing up. I wonder how Barbie survived the rain...Probably beautifully!

On the ride back I visited with Emily's science teacher. I really don't think Emily would have missed me if I wasn't there! It's the first time I have seen her just really focused on friends and not really caring if I was there or not...I was commenting about that to her teacher, how she used to be so shy. Her teacher said she was shy at the beginning of the year, but that she really felt that since being in the play that she's become more confident and outgoing.

And that is the way it should be, right? Our kids becoming confident and independant. Needing us less.

*sniff*