Parent’s Day Off

I was taking a shower yesterday morning when Diana entered the bathroom.  I heard her voice from the other side of the curtain say, “I’m really sick.”

“Oh, that sucks,” I said.

She continued, “I have to be the room parent at Luca’s PDO class today.  But I think I’m too sick to do it.”

“Oh, that sucks,” I said.

“I can’t find a replacement.  Can you do it today?”

“OH, THAT SUCKS!”  I said.

PDO stand for “Parent’s Day Off.”  It’s a day care thing at Luca’s pre-school that, by law, has to have 2 adults in attendance.  Diana meant for me to be one of the adults.

“What do I have to do?”  I whined.

“You have to just play with the kids and help out the teacher and maybe pour some milks for snack time and possibly change a poopy diaper.”

“No no no no no no no no no no no no no no.  There is no way I am changing another kid’s poopy diaper. What if that poopy diaper belongs to a girl?  No.  Too bad.  They can cancel PDO today.  Ain’t doing it.  No way.  No how.”

I thought that. 

I said, “Okay.”

My anxiety was at its zenith when we entered the building.  I asked Luca to lead me to his classroom.  He looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “I don’t know where PDO is.”  I wept openly.

Eventually, we found the room and met his teacher.  A lovely woman who had boundless energy and enthusiasm.  I realized my role was simply to maintain the legal two adult status. 

She introduced me to the students.  Their names immediately exited my head, so I simply called them Booger Nose, Crybaby, Kid Who Won’t Share, Mean Girl, Sporto, Sporto 2, Thumbsucker and Luca.

The kids were incredibly well behaved.  Mostly because Luca’s teacher ruled with a surprising mixture of love and not taking any crap. 

My heart simply melted at the sight of Luca playing with everyone. He is such a generous, bright and happy little kid.  And he was a lot less boogery than Booger Nose. 

I helped clean tables, zip coats and managed to be on the other side of the room whenever a kid had a poopy diaper. 

By the end, I was exhausted and vowed never to let Diana get sick again.