How to make your mark at a new school

playground equipment–untattooed (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we moved, I enrolled my children at a private school known for its rigorous academics and discipline. I was eager for them to make a good impression, but when my mother called after their first week to inquire how my children were doing, I said, “Oh, you mean the cheat, the forger, and the vandal?”

I got a call from the principal or a teacher nearly every day that week. First was my child cheating by copying another student’s homework. Then my high schooler signed my name on a homework infraction slip, rather than showing it to me. And the icing on the cake was the principal informing me that my second-grade son had etched, “I love” and a female classmate’s name on not one or two or three, but eight pieces of playground equipment.

So much for fitting in!

Dalita, mother 4