The Things We Will Do For Our Kids

Every Wednesday is show and tell day for my daughter in her kindergarten class. It's a fun time for her to take an item in and talk about it in front of her class. For three weeks straight she has been bugging me to take her fish in for show and tell. I kept putting it off, because I knew it would involve me having to clean the fish aquarium really good, and then transport the fish to school and home during share time.

I finally caved. Today, I drove a fish to school. It was very odd. I was driving along and Flounder looked like he was going nuts. He kept swimming back and forth really fast and almost trying to jump out of the fish tank. I was stopped at a stop light and I found myself talking to the fish. "It's okay, Flounder. We are almost to Maddie's school. Just a few more blocks. It's gonna be okay." I looked up and there was a teenager parked beside me in the other lane, who was clearly too cool for school. He had his dark sunglasses on and was just staring at me like I was some kind of pycho woman. The fish was on the floor board and I'm sure I looked rather strange.

I just thought to myself. Hey, one day you will have cellulite and wrinkles and a big beer belly, and you may be driving a fish to school too. Then you won't look so cool either. So just can it.

Anyhow, back to the story. I had to sneak into the school during lunch/recess time when the kindergarten class was outside. This was a request from the teacher. I am carrying this tank and water is splashing all over me, and I'm sloshing down the halls with my soaked flip flops and I was thinking, man, the things I do for my kids. I finally got the aquarium inside and plugged in. I even put a fish beach towel over the tank, to give it a little more surprise effect at show/tell time.

When my daughter came out of school today she was beaming. She said that Flounder was a little nervous, and his eyes got really big, but he did a good job. She looked very pleased that she got to take her fish to school. So all of the trips back and forth with the fish, and cleaning out the fish poop and smelling a little fishy all day were worth the effort.

               Way to go Flounder. You did good little buddy. You did good.