My baby comes home after her second day of Kindergarten crying her eyes out. When I'm finally able to calm her down to get the story, she tells me she got a "strike" at school. Getting the story out of a crying 5 year old is extremely difficult so... I send her off to take a shower (and listen as she's continuing the flood of tears in the shower) then bring her back in the room to find out what happened. According to her, a boy pushed her at school and another boy said she was at fault. Through minutes of interrogation, I try to get as much of the story as possible. Then, as I'm putting her to bed, I ask her several times whether or not she's telling me the truth. "I want to make sure this is a true story before I go off on your teacher and those kids. And if you're lying and I've made the effort to look like a fool, you're gonna get it!" I must be a Samoan mom because I will go to the ends of the earth for my children but if they lie and make me look like an idiot, the wrath comes home! Needless to say, I'm stewing over this all night and send a note to the teacher. She calls and tells me the kids were in line and someone in the back pushed my daughter which started a domino effect on the rest of the line. The few in the back, including my daughter, were laughing and received strikes. Guess who's going to get a talkin' to today??? Everyone, including the teacher, is telling me not to be too hard on her. Uh... ya'll don't know me! She's AT LEAST going to learn that laughing with the crowd is NOT okay and pushing people can hurt so IT'S NOT FUNNY! On a good note, my daughter came to me and told me what happened so I didn't have to learn about this from someone else. I guess I'm doing something right.
