My Trip To The Local High School Cafeteria

I needed to pick my son up early from school one day. I arrived at the high school and was directed to the attendance office. There I am informed that he is at lunch. I say okay and have a seat while I wait for him to show up. After about 15 minutes or so I notice 3 other kids have came and left after me. I ask the lady at the desk if my son is coming. She says "no he has lunch, we cannot call for him." I ask "well how do I get him?" She says "you have to go and look for him." That answer annoys me but I head on over to the cafeteria. It's been a couple years since I have visited a high school cafeteria. There are hundreds of teens with attitudes and piercings and so on. I approach the cafeteria door where is a staff member standing guard. I tell him I am looking for my son. He says go on in and look around?? WTF?? There are hundreds of kids in there!

"Look around??" I enter and walk around looking for my son. I, amongst the fashionable teens feel very out of place. I mean seriously it was all eyes on the old chick. I immediately felt my hairstyle was outdated, my pants were so not cool etc. I swear it was like being back in high school. 

I wander self consciously up and down the aisles looking for my son, who surprisingly looks like all the sons there. I literally feel all the kids staring at me, talking about me, judging me. After 10 minutes I return to the gate keeper and tell him I can't find my son, thinking he will make an announcement or something but he says "try again he's in there." I return. The stares return. I feel overweight, I notice I am the only female there without skinny jeans and Uggh boots.....

Is that a pimple I feel coming up on my forehead? Oh dear God. I am dying here. I, again, return to the gate keeper and say "no luck" he then informs me I can go look around the court yard. Which  I do. I enter and see kids making out, and notice immediately all the clicks. I quickly get  the hell outta there. And return to the cafeteria. I decide I will just wait there and eventually he will come out. Although I generally enjoy embarrassing my kids. I  did not want to do that to my son in front if the entire student body and somehow I think when your mommy comes looking for you in the cafeteria that could be embarrassing. I lay low by the entrance hoping to spot him. When one of his friends spots me and yells out 
"Miss Reed!" 
"Look it's  Miss Reed!"
"Miss Reed in the house!"
"Heeeeeey Miss Reed!"
 Of course due to his loud yelling the entire cafeteria turns at once to look at me. I am dying here I feel the teenage girls eyes traveling over my apparel. The teen boys sizing me up. This is just awkward! Just when I can take it no more I see him. I approach him and he actually did not seem as horrified as I thought he would be. I am the one horrified and ready to get out of there. I get outside and say to him "sorry I did not mean to pick you up in front of the entire school" "It's cool" he says  "You look kinda cool today anyways." "Awe, I do?" I ask. "Yeah" he says " you should have seen the mom that came in before you. She had the nerve to have on skinny jeans!"

Busted- Skipping School Part 2

Let us resume where we left off shall we? And if you missed it then feel free to check out the beginning of the story by clicking here.
So the boys had skipped school, I busted them, and beat them, then gathered them up in their PJs and headed off  to the middle school. I make a big scene pulling up and then yanking open the sliding door. Marlon gets out and walks slowly into the school. When we arrive at the office the receptionist says "Oh you found him." I say "yes, he was at home. I want to check him in please." She informs me that because it is so late in the day he will be counted absent. I tell her "I don't care, check him in anyway." His eyes are red from crying. She asks him if he is okay. He does not respond. I inform her that he had received a spanking and was in huge trouble. I also informed her that if the school had any concerns and felt the need to contact any authorities due to my corporal punishment do so now and I will wait right here because I was going back to work and do not need the any further interruptions. 
I know it was bitchy but one time before my son had gotten suspended from school and we spanked him. His brother went to school and told the teacher his brother was not in school because he had gotten a spanking (which was not why he was not there by the way) but anyways the school called me and asked if I had indeed spanked my son. I informed them that I had and they told me it was illegal to hit my kid and if they heard that again they would be bound by law to report me. 
The receptionist looked at me and looked at him and then said "hmm you gotta do what you gotta do". I thanked her for her time and returned to my vehicle where my other son was waiting. 
We drove in silence to his school and as I got out of the vehicle he looked mortified. I walked with him into the school office and said that I wanted to check him in. The receptionist looked at his attire and then back at me as I waited for some comment. She kept looking at my son with concern. He stood there in silence. There were other students in the office so I'm sure that made it worse. She asked him if he was okay. I gave him the look. I then informed her that he had received a spanking and if she needed to report it or whatever do so now and I'll just wait. She seemed shocked. She asked me to wait a minute while she checked protocol. I mean seriously this was ridiculous. This kid is twice my size. She returned and then asked me if I wanted to speak with someone. I asked her "what for?" She said "well you seem upset." I said I was but did not need to talk to anyone. What I really needed was to be able to return to work and not to receive attitude when I call here to see if my son is in school. She said okay. And I was free to go. 
As I pulled out of the parking lot I receive a call from the high school. I immediately think  "great I am going to be arrested for spanking my giant son." I answer. The lady on the phone informs me that she just realized who I was and she wanted to let me know that earlier that day she had received a phone call from someone claiming to be the father of my son. He just wanted to inform the school that Michael was living with him and that my contact number should be deleted from the contact list and replaced with a new number which just happened to be my sons cell number. The school said they knew it was student because his voice cracked a couple times. And they had been planning to contact me about it. 
I was floored. I would never have thought in a million years that he would be that conniving. It appears I have entered into a new phase of parenting. One I dislike very much and one that will surely age me before my time.

Now that I know what a lil sly fox I am dealing with I am going to have to step up my game. Needless to say the punishments were bountiful and continuous. 
Question  If you have a teen have you experienced skipping?
And if not than did you skip school?

Roc's Reflections- Another Child...Gone

Each weekday I load two kids into my van and head off to preschool but I send two other of my children off to walk to school. One goes West to the middle school the other, East to the high school. The middle schooler has a straight shot to school on a side road. So not much to worry about, but for the fact that rushing-off-to-work-carpool-parents may not be paying attention. The high schooler, well this is scary. Off our road, to a side road, across a four lane highway at a major intersection then another super busy road then an even busier 2 lane road. Scary. Last week a boy taking a similar route was hit by his own teacher driving to work and died. It is sad and it is tragic I have added two links to share the story. Also one is a video that shows the main road in front of the school that the kids must cross, also where the boy was killed. Today I am sad. Today I also pray that my boys learn from this and be very careful so that they may return home just as they left. I pray not only for the boy who died and his family but also for the teacher who hit him, for his life is forever changed for the worse.

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