The Endless Frustration of Children

You just have to LOVE how it honestly never occurs to them to tell you something until the absolute very last minute, because all children believe their parents are complete magicians, able to conjur anything up to (and possibly including) an elephant at whim.

Found out tonight (toNIGHT, mind you, not even toDAY) that Mark needs to wear a shirt and tie to school on game days from now on, including tomorrow. Mark has a couple of dress shirts, but they are multi-striped things that truly are not meant to go with a tie. He has one (1) white dress shirt. He has one (1) tie, which goes gorgeously with the white shirt and a pair of black dress pants.

So, piece of cake, you say, he can wear the white shirt and tie tomorrow for game day. Well, here's the wrinkle: TUESDAY is the HOLIDAY CONCERT, for which he is *strongly encouraged* to wear a white shirt and black pants. (They would require it, I'm sure, except that they have to take into account families that perhaps cannot afford to get special holiday dress-up clothes just for a concert. You know, like, say, me. Although I do it anyway. I have a horror of my children being inappropriately dressed. Flashbacks to childhood, but that's another post.)

What makes all this even more irritating is that we were AT the store today, IN the boys' clothing department, LOOKING AT DRESS CLOTHES, including DRESS SHIRTS AND TIES. *I* was picking up a pair of black dress pants for him for the concert, and just perusing the shirts, but remembered that he had the white shirt and tie, figured he's good. Picked up some black socks & shoes, too. (he refused "nice" black shoes. Instead he has a pair of those suede pullon things, you know, sort of like these.) But he never bothered to mention the need for anything to wear on GAME DAYS.

So anyway, tonight I told him to pull his clothes together for tomorrow, and he AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH
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OK, I'm okay. I was just blithely writing along, and then remembered that Mark brought his basketball bag (including his uniform, water bottle, and sneakers) to his father's house on Wednesday and never brought it home. So I woke him up and made him call his father's house to get them to bring it to him tomorrow. And had to listen to them go back and forth about how Mark shouldn't need his uniform because he's on the bench with his cast. Even though Coach told me tonight that he's going to check with the officials to see if Mark, even without a "soft cast," could sub in to shoot if they got a technical foul. Which Mark could not do if he was not in uniform. Not to mention the whole "be a part of the team" thing. But, they're going to "try" to bring it to him at school.

So where was I? Ah yes. Was getting [hold on--phone]
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Damn. That was D. calling back that Mark's basketball bag is NOT THERE. Apparently he brought it back to school with him on Thursday. And never brought it home. So it is (hopefully) at school. Please excuse me while I find a brick wall upon which to bang my head.

You know, I don't even have the energy anymore to finish my story of how Mark wanted me to go shopping TONIGHT to get him a new tie because the combination of tie and shirt that he is going to have to wear tomorrow is so completely hideous. TONIGHT. As in, *after* his sister was already in bed and asleep.

But I will ask this: do you think it is so weird that Mark should wear his uniform to games, even though he's 99% sure to be sitting on the bench the whole time? X and D. think he shouldn't even bother. I, on the other hand, feel strongly that he should suit up with the rest of the team. It promotes team unity, as well as visually identifying him as a team member, in a way that just wearing dress clothes and sitting on the team bench does not. What do you think? mk