It's a Monday morning nightmare. The bag that came home from school Friday afternoon had sat untouched all weekend. A busy weekend schedule of a baseball game, soccer practice, church, chores, etc. all led to the neglect. I held my breath as I opened his folder — CRUD! AN ENTIRE PACKET OF HOMEWORK!

The blame went back and forth.
Him: "Mom, you should have reminded me to look in my bag!"
Me: "But it's your responsibility; I can't remember all my stuff and your stuff, too!"

Then we moved into "resolve crisis" mode. Thankfully there was about 30 minutes before the bus was due to arrive, so he dove right in. Once I had him going, I just left him alone, figuring he would get done as much as he could, and that would have to be good enough.

He did alright, too. Not too much was left undone by the time we had to shove it in his backpack so he could run down the driveway. His 7-year-old sister gave him a little tip: "You can do the rest on the bus; that's what I do if I don't have my homework finished." To my surprise, he didn't tell her to shut-up, but instead said, "Yeah, that's what I'll do."

What a proud moment. Both my children — in second and fourth grades — are already mirroring the same insane habits I kept up throughout school because of a busy extra-curricular schedule. What have I done?