Monday, February 7, 2011

Backpack on vacation

Again.

Jupiter is always in present mode.

Past..already happened.

Future..what's future? It's not here yet. Won't worry about it until it gets here.

Add in lack of impulse control. Okay, absolutely no impulse control whatsoever.

And....the backpack comes home with lots of things that didn't travel to school in it.

My favorite so far this year is the keychain emblazoned, "AMELIA". For some reason, I was suspicious that the keychain did not belong to Jupiter.

Last week, she came home with a green plaid jacket with peace signs on it.

I asked her about it, and she told me that someone thought it was hers (logically enough, since she loves peace signs) and hung it on her hook.

Just because someone hung it on your hook does not mean it is yours.


So today, she brought the green plaid jacket back to school.

When I checked her backpack this afternoon, it held a white vest with lots of pockets and zippers. Also not hers. Not sure what the story is on this one yet. So the backpack is on vacation. I hope it is spiritually on a beach under a hot sun somewhere, where I would like to be.

Her extra clothes, hat and mittens can live in the top part of her school cubby. Her daytime sneakers can live in the bottom of her school cubby.

Her hat and mittens of the day can live in her coat sleeves or her coat pockets.

She can carry her lunchbox and reading folder.

She doesn't need a backpack.

When I ask her, she knows the rule about taking things that are not hers. She can recite the rules. She can recite how people feel when we take things from them.

But she still. takes. things.

I despair that she will ever learn to control this.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Can you prescribe the behavior at home? Yes, I know, it's crazy.

Diana said...

My kids backpacks have gone on vacation as well. One for trying to take a box of matches to school and then discovering many contrabanned items in there. My youngest brought home a brand new glue stick and scissors from school last week. No doubt he charmed his teacher into believing we don't have these items at home. They went back to school this morning. Each time my kids have to return stuff to school, I always email their teacher and alert them to it so they can follow up with the kids and get the stuff back. It's enough to make a mama crazy, isn't it??