A Parent's Predicament: Being At Two Places At The Same Time

Last week I found myself in a typical mommy predicament: I had to be at two places at the same time. I have an easy out for that situation. My husband works from home and he can usually cover for me, but it's not always the case. I had two different events at exactly the same time this past Wednesday night. Which event is more important to me and why? How do parents choose where to be and when?

Last year at T-ball practice, I met a mom who was juggling three different sports at the same time. Two children were playing baseball on grounds, and her third child was playing tennis elsewhere. The mom did the drop-offs and then spent the next hour and a half running between baseball fields and driving to the tennis match. That mom did the best she could and then some.

My situation was less dire than missing my kid's important game. I wanted to go to the last Wednesday. I put it on my calendar. We have been struggling with homework this year with my second grader. In particular, all writing assignments. Not the math, but language arts and book reports bring misery into my house.

I thought , a leading ADHD expert would give me answers. Quinn was to discuss homework profiling. What kind of kid do you have? Procrastinator? Easily frustrated? Disorganized? Depending on what kind of profile your child fits, she would have your homework solution. This woman was going to be the answer to all my problems.

That's when I found out the monthly meeting was on the same night, at the same time. You might think this sounds like an easy decision. You probably suspect that I went to the homework presentation at . I did not.

The fact is, I am new to the PTO and I have never been to a meeting. I had been looking forward to going and meeting the other parents and getting more involved. I also had business to discuss there.

So I went to the PTO meeting. I had a moment of regret in this decision. How could going to a PTO meeting help my son who takes well over an hour to do his language arts homework?

When I came in, I saw my son's secon- grade teacher at the PTO meeting. I took the opportunity to tell her that Peter had been working on his homework for so long that night and that obviously we should have a meeting to discuss what to do to help him move forward.

Instead of saying yes, call me tomorrow, she sat and talked with me. When the meeting ended, she took 20 minutes and just talked to me about Peter and what was going on in the classroom when it came to writing. She was aware that writing was his nemesis. She asked me what I thought could work, we talked it out and we made a plan.

It was the best 20 minutes I have had all school year. I had made the right decision after all.

So you can't be in two places at the same time. It really is impossible. And we parents, we don't have eyes in the back of our heads. We can't see everything all the time either. That's why we have other amazing people in our lives who can help us like the teachers at , who obviously care about my son's success and happiness.