Prodding the Wildebeest

/ Tracy Abell

       

Wildebeest is a junior this year.
Attention to detail has never been his strong suit.

Last year at registration I paid for him to take some test,
I don’t remember which one.
It wasn’t until the end of the year I thought to ask him about it.
Whatever it was, he hadn’t taken it.

Money and opportunity down the drain.

This year’s registration included an optional fee for the PSAT.
I paid for it, sternly telling Wildebeest he had to pay attention to announcements,
and take the test this year.

I just got an email reminder that the exam is Saturday morning.
I called the counselor to make sure he was registered.

She said, "Yes."
And then she told me about meetings they’d held with the juniors
back in September, and about the study guides they’d been working on.

I sighed heavily and hung up.

I just finished texting with Wildebeest (I know, I shouldn’t do that during school).  Turns out:
A) he knew about the test
B) he hoped to skip it
C) he does have a study guide
D) he’s been using it

What started out as just another one of those forehead-to-palm moments,
turned into a not-so-bad parental episode.

Whenever we avoid total and complete disaster, I consider that progress.
                    

15 thoughts on “Prodding the Wildebeest”

  1. My junior is also taking the PSAT this Saturday. He has no interest in studying for it. He said he glanced at the questions in the guide and they “looked easy.” Okay – whatever. Mostly, I think it’s good practice for the SAT.

    Good luck to your son!

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      • Dull and pointless – hopefully that means he did well! 🙂

        My son said the math problems were weird. I asked if that meant hard and he said, no, just weird.

        And he said quite a few kids had a gas problem that morning. Hahahaha!

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        • He seemed to think he did pretty well. But who knows? He thought the math was pretty easy, but he was baffled by the scoring system which rewarded him for guessing but penalized him for leaving questions blank.

          No mention of gas problems. 🙂

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  3. My kids are in preeschool but the bigger one is like your son never paying attention at details. He always comes home losing a sweater,pants or even one shoe!! how? I don´t know so I end being the repetitive mother, have you brought this? have you did that? all day!!
    You are a great mom following his exams, in kids his age is difficult to follow what they are doing.
    Hope de PSAT goes well!

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    • HA! I totally remember the lost shoe, hat, mitten, book, water bottle, etc. I reached a point with my younger son (Zebu) when he was in about fourth or fifth grade that I stopped asking about stuff because as long as I asked, he didn’t have to take responsibility for his stuff. But when I wasn’t asking anymore, he had to remember on his own. (I know that doesn’t work so well when they’re in preschool).

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