Beam me up, Scotty, the balancing act is too much for me here on Earth.

Amigo is attending a one week short course at the state's school for the blind. The course, room, and board are all paid for by the district, as it's part of his schooling, but we have to provide transportation there and back. And they don't make it easy on parents with their timing.

Students who attend the school full time get transportation at district and state expense. They take a coach bus to and from their hometowns or travel by small plane if they live in the far corners of the state. Amigo has done this in the past when he's attended for a quarter or a semester. The dorm staff meets the buses on Sunday night and the school staff send the kids off to their homes on Friday afternoons.

But for short courses like this, parents have to provide transportation and time it with the availability of staff. I have to drop off Amigo no earlier than 7:30 PM on Sunday evening. Did I mention this is a three hour drive from my home? If I'm back on the road by 8:00, and that's wishful thinking, I'll get home at 11 PM at the earliest.

So what? say the daughter and the son, the nightowls in the family. Well, kiddos, I'll tell you what. I rise at 5:30 AM on weekdays to get ready for school. On weekends, if I"m lucky, I'll sleep in until 7. Driving while exhausted isn't really my cup of tea; neither is teaching school without a decent night's sleep. The route home isn't a wide multi-lane turnpike style road, either. Most of it is two lane, winding roads with farms on either side and deer jumping out of the woods.

Add to that my recent bout with a chest cold, and I predict I may need a sick day Monday to recover from Sunday's drive.

Next, the pickup. One of us has to be there by 2:00 PM on Friday to pick him up. If Husband can't take a personal or a vacation day, I'll have to do it. A sick day won't cut it this time because it's not sick time. No one's sick. I'd have to take one of my two personal days. Two, I said. Two personal days per school year. I usually use them to pick up daughter from college at the end of her semesters. If I blow one now, Husband will have to handle the pickup in December or in May.

Now what? If we want Amigo to participate in this course with his visually impaired peers, and we do, we have to get him there. To get him there and home again, we have to sacrifice two days of work.

I wrote my sub plans for Monday. If I'm feeling fine at 5:30 AM Monday, I can call in and cancel my sub. That just leaves Friday to cover. Most likely, I'm missing two days of work this week.

If there's a technique to mastering this balance beam, I haven't found it.

I wrote this post before the actual adventure took place. To read the rest of the story, check out this post on Compost Happens.

Comments

[ilona]

I think the problem lies not in your family's half of the equation, (except insofar as it seems to be suggested by this post that your husband doesn't do as much of this sort of driving as you). The school could adust arrival times for families coming from a distance, say, or your workplace could have more family-friendly policies.

Given the realities, however, I think you're doing as well as can be expected. Too bad it doesn't allow for more sleep!

[Daisy]

I'd like to see the school adjust arrival times or allow short-course kids to ride the buses. Parents of disabled kids often end up using more time off than parents of more typical children, and contracts don't allow for that.