The Dance of the Pants

The Story of Tristan’s School Pants

When Tristan and Max were getting ready to go back to the Catholic school, I took out all the uniform pieces that I had kept and determined what we could use for this year and what needed to be bought.  All of Tristan’s pants from last year fit Max perfectly and we had plenty of shorts for both of them.  Shorts are what’s worn most often because of the weather and even on the “cold” days they put a sweatshirt on and are still happy with shorts.  But boys are required to wear pants on the days that the school attends mass.  So, I made a note that all uniform pieces were accounted for, except a pair of pants for Tristan.  This meant that a trip to the uniform store needed to be added to the calendar.  From that point I continued to get the boys ready to get back to school.  Many school supply items needed to be bought because the public school provided all the necessary pencils, paper, markers, glue and folders.  Shoes were on the list because sandals (which are what Max was wearing on all days except PE days) are not allowed and shoes must be either black, blue or white.  So, the list was long and getting them ready was time-consuming.  

They were finally ready and it was the first day back to their old school.  Uniforms on, backpacks packed and lunches in tow, they walked into their new classes.  We jumped back into the routine of the school.  Then, Friday rolled around and Tristan woke up in a panic.  ”I need pants!”.  Yikes!  I calmed him down, apologized for not buying the pants yet and told him I’d write a note to the teacher explaining that I forgot about the pants and that he’d have them before the next mass day.  Everyone accepted my excuse and apology and everything was fine.  Until yesterday…….Yesterday was 2 weeks since my note AND the next mass day.  Yep, M.O.M. had dropped the ball!  I knew I couldn’t send him with another note.  I quickly got online and looked up the uniform store’s hours and realized that if they opened at 10 am and mass was at 11 am, that I could send him to school in shorts, have him tell the teacher that I was going to the uniform store and would be back with the pants.  A great plan!  Nope!  Tristan was mortified at the thought of showing up, yet again, in shorts.  We agreed that he could stay home for the morning, go to the uniform store with me and then show up, in pants, for mass.  Whew!  I got everyone else to school and came home to get ready to run the errand.  By 9 am, I realized that he was needlessly missing class work and called the office for advice on my silly situation.  The lady in the office actually went to see if they had a pair of pants that he could wear for the day.  There was nothing in his size.  So, we agreed that I should drop him off at school, in shorts, go to the uniform store, buy the pants and drop them off for him in time for mass. Done!  I swear I’m out of breath just recounting this story!  

So, I loaded up Tristan and the 2 youngest kids, dropped him off at school, drove to the uniform shop (actually arriving 15 minutes before they opened which led me to the conclusion that I should use that time to find a Starbucks….and did!) ran in, grabbed 2 pair of pants, one in each of two sizes, drove back to the school, ran to the classroom, headed to the bathroom with Tristan and had him try on the pants.  Whew!  So, off he walked with his class, properly dressed and ready for mass.  His teacher was chuckling at me and the situation.

Dance of the Pants, done!

Have a great day~

This entry was posted on January 24, 2009 at 1:13 pm and is filed under children, family life, kids, mistake, mom, parenting, school. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.