From the "Whoops" File of Parenting

Ever get the feeling you can't do anything right on a given day? 

So I went in to wake my daughter this morning and found her hot-faced, extremely drowsy, and complaining of various aches and pains.  Suspecting the annual holiday ailment had come after all, if a bit late, I kept her home.  I felt so ahead of the game . . . avoiding the dreaded call from the school nurse, noting that I'd rolled the dice and lost. 

I oh-so efficiently tucked her back into bed and encouraged her to rest.  After about an hour more rest, she was right as rain.  So right, in fact, she was wrong.  A lot.  Today.  We won't get into all of her misdeeds today; though I can be spotted lamenting some of it over at Anna's blog (Chickens in the Basement) earlier this morning.  Suffice it to say, it bespoke of a child who was bored and should have been in school today.  Ooops.

Well, you may ask, what's so bad about that?  Better safe than sorry.  No harm done. 

But you would only know half the story.

The other half entails picking up my son from school.  I picked up a pleasant, happy little boy whose day was reportedly "pretty good."  We talked all the way home about the new pens his teacher had passed out to the class today -- the first time using pens in school . . . a leap from nine right over to at least fifteen years old by his measure!  By the time we got home and he got his jacket off, he was pale . . . prompting me to ask, "What's the matter?"  He admitted having had a bit of a headache all day.  (uh-oh)  And by the time he'd put his lunchbox away and washed his hands, his paleness had turned red-faced and weepy, reporting a "big headache now." 

So now the one who was home "sick" from school is disappointed that the one who did go to school today is too sick to play. 

Whoops.