Fatherhood Reflections XXXIII - First Day Of School! First Day Of School!

What a horrendous experience for me.

It started off with sleeping late the night before. The wifey woke me up around 0630am. Now this is the first time in eons that I’ve had to wake up so early, and the start of a supposed routine. I’m all groggy and grumpy while the wifey works hard to get all the stuff ready for the kids, particularly the boy. We load up the car at 0705am.

The school is so near and I’ve almost never seen the slip road in jammed before but boy was I in for a shock. The actual distance in and out would take at most a 2mins drive in smooth traffic. I turn in. Horror. Jammed all the way from start to finish. We queue to go past one secondary school, queue to see the entrance of the boy’s school, can’t stop there nor drop off anyone. Queue to turn into the carpark that houses the side gate. Go through the parking gantry. Queue to turn into the dropoff shelter. Said bye to the boy and wished him all the best for his day at school. Make a quick loop around the small carpark. Queue to get out. Whole thing took 20mins.

We leave the carpark. I head straight for what looked like the shorter queue out. Wrong, it was longer because the road out was longer and we had to go through two traffic lights to get to the main road. Made a U-turn. Joined the shorter queue I earlier intended which had no traffic lights to wait for but was jammed packed all the way out. Took 25mins.

In total we took 45mins to enter and exit a slip ring road that would have taken 2mins under no traffic conditions. Geez.

At lunch, the wifey says she is worried about the boy since we didn’t clearly see him enter the school. Even though the distance between the dropoff and the side gate was a mere 20m. The teacher had sent a picture showing the class working out, but we couldn’t see the boy. The wifey is worried. Told me to call the school. I call. There was a prompt pick up, as though the staff manning the phone lines has been super busy all day inundated by kiasu worried parents. Told her to check if my boy is in school. She says he’s attendance marker shows that he is present. I ask if she could go check if he is physically in class. She accedes to my request. Calls me back in 3mins to tell me that he is. This is a good school, I tell myself. Excellent staff, understanding the plight of worried parents.

School ends. The boy and all the bus mates wait an hour before the bus leaves for their destinations. It’s been 1/2hr and the wifey is worried about whether the boy has reached the student afterschool care centre. The boy is not there. Worried. She calls the bus minder who’s on board the bus. The bus made a wrong turn and it heading to the city! WTF?! Another 20mins later, the bus finally arrives, as confirmed by the afterschool care center. The boy reaches only 2hrs after school ends, even though the center is a mere 10mins away by car. The boy misses nap time. Grumpy.

That was first day of school.

I need a beer now. And not sleep too late.

20 years ago I said goodbye to 12 years of having to wake up at 6am for school everyday.
Today I said hello to waking up at 6am to send my kids to school every day for the next 12 years.
- My latest FB post