Bad Mummy Moment #3964

It's my day off today. Yay. I had plans for the day - nothing special but a few chores to do, some errands to run and a last minute arrangement to catch up with a friend for a coffee.

So we got ready for the day and I took the kids to school. Offspring #1 waved goodbye and headed for his classroom and I walked #2 to her classroom. And then #1 appeared to tell me he'd forgotten a special project he'd been working on. I agreed to go back home, collect it, and return to school with it when I'd finished getting #2 into class. All good.

#2 and I sorted out her reading book, she collected her chair and put it at her desk and then she started crying. She didn't want me to leave. She wanted to come home with me. Of course I said no. I wasn't having her pull this kind of stuff three weeks into grade one. What would I be setting myself up for if I let her come home with me because she was crying? I could see the rest of the year stretching ahead of me with a kid who wouldn't stay at school.

Then she upped the stakes.

 She didn't feel well. Her tummy hurt. Hmmm... well that's the first I'd heard of it and since school was about to start I still wasn't falling for her routine. I took her to the teacher, explained the situation and said that I'd like #2 to give it a go and if she still didn't feel well a bit later they could call me and I'd come collect her. She had a relief teacher today, one that #2 knows, likes and is comfortable with who I also happen to have worked with so we did a bit of Mummy/Teacher talking in code stuff and were both on the same page. All good.

I raced home and collected #1's special project, zipped back to school and dropped it off and then took off to pay some bills in the local area before the planned trip down the hill. I made it to the first stop, all of six minutes away from school, before the phone call came.

So, guess who is now tucked up in her bed with a terribly sore belly and a bucket next to her? I followed my instincts and made her stay at school and now I feel awful. But if I'd let her come home when I thought she was bunging it on I wouldn't normally have been doing her any favours either.

This motherhood gig really needs to come with a handbook.