School breakfast fiasco

Our school morning routine was turned upside down today and boy, do I ever feel like a loser mom! Normally I get up after 6 a.m. and get the girls up at around a quarter to seven so my first grader can catch the bus to school at 7:25 a.m. in time to eat breakfast there. My preschool daughter must be taken to school at around 8 a.m., and she eats breakfast around 8:30 a.m.

This morning I just couldn't get up, I guess because of the time change. I decided to feed my kids breakfast at home and then drop them off at school, both at the same time. I got them up, got them dressed, and went to the kitchen to grab some cereal and there was none! There was no bread to make a quick sandwich either.

I looked at the clock and realized that if we hurried, my older daughter still had time to get breakfast at school. I combed their hair and we dashed out of the door. We got there just in time to see the cafeteria close up for the morning.

Oh man, what to do? I assured my daughter that she would be okay since they eat lunch before 11 a.m. before I dropped my other daughter off with her teacher. I felt so guilty walking back out to the car and realized that even a lunch as early as 11 a.m. would be a long time in coming to a little six-year-old who had eaten no breakfast.

When I got home I sliced up some apples and fixed her a bag of cheese and crackers, thinking all the while that I should have done that when I realized there wasn't any cereal instead of rushing them off trying to make it to school before the cafeteria closed. I put the bag of apples and the bag of cheese crackers in one of their little backpacks along with a small bottle of water and went back to school.

I had my daughter summoned up to the office, and we sat there for a few minutes munching on apples and crackers. She was glad I had brought something up to her, and delightedly put the little backpack on with snacks for later and went back to class. I felt better knowing that she had eaten and vowed not to let that little fiasco happen again.

She was so sweet about the whole thing. She didn't complain when I left her at school with no breakfast and didn't fuss when I came back with some. That afternoon after she got home from school I gave a better apology, to which she answered, "It's A-okay, Mommy."

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