Bad mommy

Yesterday I received an e-notice from R's school that he was in the hole $1.10 on his lunch money account. As I always send in the same amounts for all three kids, and K had $4.00 left at the time, I was curious as to why R's account was so low.

He'd mentioned before that he liked to buy "extras" after lunch - generally fruit rollups and the like - and that those cost an extra 50 cents per day. Apparently that adds up quickly, so this morning I fussed at him and told him to stop buying extra things at lunch, that we couldn't afford it, and basically that he was bleeding us dry. (Not exactly true, but I had to make my point.)

R looked sheepish, which made me think, "Aha, he IS buying fruit rollups every day! Well, I'll put a stop to that!" That's when he told me about Akhilesh, the new student in his class. Akhilesh just moved here from India, and he had had no lunch money for two days. On his own, R was buying extra food so his new friend would have something to eat.

Never felt so small in my life.

Way to go, kiddo. I love you so much.