The first of many, perhaps?

So....I recieved a phone call this morning from my kids' school.

Phone calls from school usually don't worry me too much. Sometimes it's the teacher or the principal with a question, or letting me know that there's an event for the School Council or something.

But today it was my 6 year old son's teacher, saying my boy needed to talk to me.

Here's our conversation:

C: Hi Mom
Me: Hi sweetie, what's up? Are you OK?
C: (muffled) Makayla's here at school today.
Me: Makayla's at school?
C: Yeah.
Me: Ummm...okay...is that what you called to tell me?
C: Well, I'm missing all the fun things.
Me: (confused) Okay...why are you missing the fun stuff?
C: 'Cuz Makayla's here.
Me: Oh.....OK....are you feeling okay, hon?
C: Yeah...(silence)
Me: Are you sure you're OK?
C: Yeah
Me: And Makayla's at school?
C: Yeah
Me: Well...ok...is your teacher there?
C: Yeah
Me: Can I talk to her?
C: OK, love you mom.
Me: Love you too, sweetie.

After that I was completely confused, wondering why in the world was he calling me to tell me one of his classmates was present at school. Weren't they all at school? What kind of call was this?

THEN, I talked to his teacher. It wasn't about Makayla being "HERE" at school...it was about Makayla's "HAIR" at school.

Apparently, they were doing an Art project and my darling little boy cut off a chunk of his classmate's beautiful, long, straight hair.

WHAT???

What was he thinking? Why did he do that? Was he crazy?

I explained to the teacher that I had totally misunderstood Curtis on the phone and asked to speak to him again. We had a nice long serious chat about good choices and bad choices, the proper use of scissors, Makayla's feelings (her mom's feelings too!) and hairdressing as a profession, not an extra-curricular activity in school. Jeez!

After that conversation I asked the teacher how Curtis had responded right after it happened, and She said that he claimed he cut it because "it was just hanging there." Okay...yeah...good one, Curtis.

Anyhoo -- I'll call Makayla's mom tonight (she's a friend of mine) and ask her if she needs a hair cut to fix it up. If she does, Curtis will be paying for it from his own pocket money. He's already learned that if you get into bad enough trouble at school, you have to call home and tell mom about it -- and I think that lesson sunk in. His teacher said he looked very solemn and sad at school, so I think he regrets it. He's apologized, and that is good.

I think this was a teachable moment for him, and he's learned his lesson -- hopefully more consequenses than these won't be necessary.

It was a teachable moment for me too -- I've learned that it is the time that phone calls from school have begun. Oh joy. All part of parenting, right?