Just what I needed at 9 o’clock on a Sunday night….Claire in tears and Lucas doing algebra homework.

Last night, Claire came down into the kitchen with tears in her eyes and a trembling chin while Lucas was sitting at the kitchen counter working on his long put off homework.  Stan was grumpily working with Lucas.  He had asked Lucas all day if he had homework to work on.  At 9 o’clock he broke out his homework and found he needed help.  Stan was summoned (Stan is math and science.  I am English and history). With Stan working with Lucas it was up to me to console Claire.

I took her up to our room and we snuggled down in our bed to get to the bottom of the tears.  The problem was she didn’t know what was causing them…I had some digging to do.  I probed here and I probed there.  Bullying?  Bad grades?  Problems with a friend?  Nope to all of those.  Finally, we unearthed the problem.  She lost the bag she was using as her lunch bag.  She couldn’t find it anywhere.  It was a bag she made in preschool, with her handprints in red, green, blue and yellow.  She was devastated to think she lost something so precious to her.  It reminded her of the time she lost her baby blanket in Alabama….it was sadness and tears then too. 

Luck was with both Claire and Lucas today.  Claire found her precious bag and we decided it was time to retire it from lunch carrying duties.  Lucas did well on his homework, even though he did not impress Stan with his lack of timeliness in getting his work done.

Oh, for the love of my children….