The Last Laugh

For the last couple of weeks Mr. Awesome has been randomly humming "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" which can only mean one thing...its back to school time. Yay!

We have survived another summer of mosquitoes, scorching temperatures and the never ending whine of "What are we doing today?" Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and we had some truly awesome times this summer but at this point in August boarding school really doesn't sound that extreme.

Ever since Dude started school (and I started school supply shopping) I have had a firm belief that teachers are sadistic beings. Maybe its their way of getting revenge for ten months of non stop kiddie chatter, snotty noses and excuses for lost homework but I think that most teachers intentionally include items on the school supply list that don't exist.

This opinion was challenged this year when I discovered that I didn't need to buy Crafty and Mischief school supplies - their teachers are buying them bulk thus reducing my back to school hunt by two thirds.

Knowing that I only had one kid to shop for I thought this year's hunt was going to be a piece of cake (store bought, not homemade...we all know where my home baking skills are at right now). A quick stop at Walmart and the list would be taken care of, right?

Wrong! There is no such thing as a metric only ruler, 10 tabbed page dividers or reinforcements just to name a few of the make-believe items on the list. I know some of these things existed when I was in school but they don't exist now. I don't know. Maybe the computer age has done away with the need to divide your binder or reinforce loose leaf.

I was about ready to concede and send Dude off to school with a standard ruler with the inches crossed out and a roll of scotch tape to solve his loose leaf dilemmas when I walked into Staples. It was like magic. There, in bins in the middle of the aisle were hundreds of metric only rulers and reinforcements.

So take that, teachers. I found everything on the list and you still have my kids for seven hours a day. Who's laughing now!