Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Turkey Warm-Ups

The after-school childcare center that my children attend some afternoons is also open this week, during the district cutback holiday schedule.  Perhaps it is cosmic punishment for leaving my children in alternate care all 3 days before Thanksgiving, as the center director invited me to a special luncheon today.  They are going to have a Thanksgiving style meal at lunchtime, complete with turkey, stuffing, etc. 

Seriously?  The day before the nation gorges on turkey, they're going to have a turkey luncheon?  Why would they do that??  All 3 childcare centers my children have attended have done this.  The best part is the invitation to the parents to attend the celebration.  DH made the error of taking time off work to attend one of these pre-turkey luncheons.  Neither he, nor I, had the day off, so he just extended his lunch hour a bit.  We figured we didn't want Teddy, who was 2 at the time, to be the only toddler without a parent at this "special" lunch.  All went well until lunch was over, and DH had to return to work.

Teddy was just beside himself in tears.  We'd never stopped in during the day before, so whenever he saw us, it was always time to go home!  There was DH leaving him behind!!!  I got a call describing the heartbreak when DH finally escaped.  We both felt terrible and realized it might have been better to skip the lunch after all.  There were not that many other parents there--they must have known better.

And yes, I've been invited to join the boys at the pre-turkey lunch today.  Reliving that memory though, and thinking of the parents who were moved to take their kids home after lunch...suddenly I have insight on why daycare centers might like serving this meal.  It just seems wrong to eat turkey and NOT take your kids home with you after.  I'll have to fortify myself beforehand.

3 comments:

  1. Maybe they want to teach the kids about the holiday. Tomorrow is for the big people, and not all families are happy at these get togethers!

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  2. I attended, and survived without buckling to the pressure to take the boys home early (promising them the chance to help clean the house for tomorrow proved an effective deterrent).

    In multi-culti California, it turns out that many of the children were not expecting a traditional American Thanksgiving meal after all. One little Asian boy had never had turkey before, and declared it SO delicious, he was going to insist they have turkey for Thanksgiving every year!

    The director was very pleased at the response--this was her first time cooking a turkey and it came out very well.

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  3. I'm glad it went well. Hope your day to today is peaceful.

    ReplyDelete

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