{"id":178,"date":"2015-06-05T16:48:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T16:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=178"},"modified":"2015-06-05T16:48:54","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T16:48:54","slug":"perfect-attendance-is-over-rated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=178","title":{"rendered":"Perfect Attendance is Over Rated"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember when I decided that none of my children wo\"V__D19E(1)\"<\/a>uld ever get a perfect attendance award.<\/p>\n

My oldest daughter was in second grade and the quads were in kindergarten. I went to the kids’ school about an hour into the school day and\u00a0had them get my oldest out of class.\u00a0 She came to the office with a very confused look on her face.\u00a0 “Congratulations!” I said, “It’s your day!\u00a0 You get to decide what we’re\u00a0doing today and where we’re going to have lunch”.\u00a0 She was\u00a0beyond excited.\u00a0\u00a0 We spent the rest of the day together until we had to go pick up her siblings.\u00a0 Thus, the special day<\/em> <\/strong>was born.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, she\u00a0happily told her siblings all about her day.\u00a0 They immediately wanted to know if they, too, would get special days.\u00a0 I told them they \"WP_20150521_006\"<\/a>would, they just didn’t know when it would happen.\u00a0 So every year since then, I’ve taken them out of school for a special day.<\/p>\n

It’s gotten a little more complicated as they’ve grown up.\u00a0 Now I can’t just\u00a0show up at school and surprise them.\u00a0 We have to plan around tests and major assignments.\u00a0 And their number one priority is sleeping in while the others go to school.<\/p>\n

Over the years, we’ve played putt putt golf, painted pottery, seen movies, painted, done crafts, shopped, played video games and pinball machines, and\u00a0gone bowling.\u00a0 All the while talking and laughing.<\/p>\n

I love special days.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With five kids in the house, there were few opportunities to have one on one time.\u00a0 That was something I longed to have with each of my children.\u00a0 So special days are m\"WP_20150526_001\"<\/a>y time to really connect.\u00a0 I ask them about school and friends.\u00a0 I ask about their dreams.\u00a0 I ask about their struggles.\u00a0 And I listen.\u00a0 It’s my time to really hear what’s going on in their hearts and heads.\u00a0 Or at least what they’re willing to share.\u00a0 And mostly, they are willing.\u00a0\u00a0I think it’s\u00a0because they don’t have to worry about anyone else hearing or interrupting them and they have my undivided attention.<\/p>\n

So when we go to the end of the year award ceremonies and other kids get perfect attendance awards, I clap and smile knowing my kids will never get one.\u00a0 And I’m okay with that.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m willing to sacrifice that awar\"V__9348\"<\/a>d for the great blessing I get from spending the day with each one of them.<\/p>\n

I just finished this year’s round of special days.\u00a0 I even got to have one with my oldest who was home for a week after finals and before heading to her summer job.<\/p>\n

My husband said that next year\u00a0will be my last year to do special days since the quads will graduate high school.\u00a0 I hadn’t really thought about them coming to an end.\"WP_20150518_004\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My hope is that they will continue.\u00a0\u00a0I’m not sure what they will look like or how often we’ll have them.\u00a0 I may not check them out of school, but maybe meet them at school.\u00a0 Maybe our special days will become special weekends or special afternoons or special nights.\u00a0 I just know I don’t want to lose that time to be with each one of them.<\/p>\n

So while I think that showing up for school and work and other commitments is important; I think perfect attendance is overrated…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember when I decided that none of my children would ever get a perfect attendance award. My oldest daughter was in second grade and the quads were in kindergarten. I went to the kids’ school about an hour into … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}