Do you remember when whatever your brothers or sisters were doing had to be more fun than what you were doing? Usually your childish imagination created a wonderful scenario, way out of proportion with reality, on which you were missing out. The old, “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence,” adage. My eight year old has accompanied me to work on several occasions so that I could help him with his schoolwork. He still requires assistance with directions and when I am working in the office, I usually have time to help him. It was not a reward or a punishment, just a convenience, so we wouldn’t have to do school after supper on the days that I get called in to sub. Apparently, my 10-year-old daughter was jealous of her brother going to work with me.

I did not truly grasp that until yesterday. It was something in the look she gave me when I told her that she was going to work with me. That way I could make sure that, she was doing her schoolwork. I mentioned in my blog yesterday that she had not done any bookwork in weeks, which is why she hasn’t turned any work in to be graded. I told her that in the morning she was going to have to get her household chore finished early. Also, I wanted her to complete her computer work and eat her lunch before 1pm as that was the time that we would be leaving for work.

You should have seen her rushing around this morning. You would have thought that we were going to an amusement park or somewhere spectacular. She even jumped out of the car when we got there, which is totally out of character, she likes to make everyone wait for her to exit. She followed me in the back door as I pointed to a desk and told her to sit over there and do her schoolwork. I indicated that she should continue to bring me her work as she finished each page, unless I was with a customer. In that case, she should wait until I was finished.

It was quite the boring afternoon. Only five customers came in, so I balanced my checkbook and read the weekly freebee ad paper as well as my mail. I asked her if it was everything she imagined and more. She gave me a disheartened look and said, “No, it was nothing like what she had expected.” Luckily, we get to go back on Saturday.


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Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007