Where's your stuff?

I was pulling into the parent drop off line for my youngest, and asked her if she had her coat. She glanced around, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "It must be at school." "Are you sure," I asked. "Yeah, if not, I'll just grab another hoodie from the lost and found." As we pulled around and she stepped out of the car I said, "Where's your backpack?" "Hrmph. Must be at home."

Aside from the obvious fact that my daughter showed up at school without a coat or backpack and we were both ok with that, I was struck by something else - the change from 5 years ago. She was having a meltdown over her missing lunch and the teacher was out of ideas, so she called my older daughter off the playground to help! It took most of the afternoon to calm her down, and she has taken hot lunch most days since. What a difference!