Fieldtrips are for kids..not parents!

Lausyn had a fieldtrip today to Natural Bridge. She was so excited this morning that she was ready 30 minutes before it was time to leave. She even tried to hurry Landon along which is the total opposite of most school days. Her main reason for being so excited rested on the fact that her Daddy was going with her! I was quickly kicked to the curb on this one. The day she found out about the trip she came home begging Kraig to go. At first, he didn’t think he would be able to work it out so she was willing to “settle” for me. However, a few days later Daddy came through and I was out on my ear!

So, I have to state this fact: “Fieldtrips are for kids, not for parents!” Fieldtrips are one of those things that we have idealistic dreams about until reality sets in! You always believe as a parent that you and your child will bond and you both will have fond memories of “remember when” for many years to come. Let me dispell that myth right now...WRONG! I had a good, hard laugh this morning as I was reminiscing with my sister about fieldtrips from yesteryear that we had chaperoned in our blissful ignorance. She fondly retold about her own trip to Natural Bridge with her son back in the fall. I will grace you with some of the details so that you may laugh as well:

First, if you haven’t been to Natural Bridge from here the road is almost one of comical proportions. It might as well be something right out of Looney Toons because it is so winding that you can see it almost double up on itself! Now, combine that along with the back of a school bus. Not just the back, but the very last seat, you know, the short one next to the death trap exit where there is no shock absorption and you don’t have one complete window to yourself - except for the back one of course. This is the seat that most kids love because they feel hidden, bounced around and able to stare piercingly at the cars behind them. Fast forward twenty years and that seat doesn’t hold the same level of fascination! To top it off, you are only one of two adults on this bus full of six year olds. You can imagine that the volume would be deafening! It was probably at this point that my sister was thanking Jesus he had blessed her with a hole in one of her ears, seriously!

She retells it this way, “I must have been white as a sheet because I was going to lose every bit of what I had in my stomach onto the little girl in front of me who would not sit still or be quiet for even one nano-second. I was trying to focus on one thing instead of everything that was moving around me, which was nearly impossible. The little bit of fresh air I could get was continuously blocked by another kid who was obsessed with putting his hands, head and almost half his body out of the window. To top it off, all I heard the whole trip was, ‘Mama, when are we....Mama, what are we...Mama, who are we...Mama, Mama, Mama!’” When the bus pulled in and she stumbled off the last step onto solid ground she immediately reached for her cell phone and in absolute joy found that she had a signal to which she feverishly began to text her husband: “I am never doing this again and by the way, can you come get me?”

I laughed until I cried because who can’t relate? There hasn’t been one fieldtrip that I have chaperoned that hasn’t left me totally whipped, ready for a straight jacket and some Nyquil by the time it was over! The funny thing is, I keep volunteering in hopes that this time will be different. Besides, I love having these experiences with my kids even if they don’t live up to my expectations because let’s face it, most of life doesn’t but, at least it makes for a good laugh! That’s a memory in and of itself!

So, in case you’re wondering how things faired for my sister - her husband didn’t come to get her but she did secure two seats in the front on the short bus coming home. She has another fieldtrip coming up next week and of course I encouraged her to attend. I don’t want to keep all the misery to myself!