MORE Rules?

By Darcy Thiel

Sometimes people get so fixated on obeying rules, they stop using common sense.

I’ve been aware of that dynamic for a while and spot it in so many settings. Last week someone on the phone just spoke to me like a robot because she couldn’t stray from the script long enough to answer simple questions from me.

Today was another incident that had me seeing red. Dave was supposed to have his first ever indoor track meet. It was at Buffalo State, about 25 minutes away. I was supposed to wake him at 5 a.m. so he could catch the bus at 6:30 a.m. I didn’t notice that I’d set the alarm for my later weekday schedule, so it didn’t go off. Oh, no!

The system doesn’t allow for being human.

I woke up at 6:30. We told his peers we would have to drive there and off we rushed. We weren’t going to be late, but it turns out there is a rule that students need to ride the bus or they can’t participate in the sport.

I called and pleaded with every source I could, all to no avail. They wouldn’t let him race. I had to drive back and pick him up. I even spoke with our counselor, who is also on staff at the school. I understand why they have such rules, but you should still be able to use common sense. In other words, no parent (single or partnered) can ever, ever make a mistake or an error without their child being punished. There will never ever be a circumstance where exceptions should be made to the general rule. That’s ridiculous.

We also talked about how I have always been hard on myself for being less than perfect, and things like this trigger me like crazy. This is why you have to be perfect. The system doesn’t allow for being human. And it’s a million times worse when your kid suffers instead of you.

I know that Dave didn’t die because he couldn’t race today. Worse things can happen in life, I know. But it was still a very stressful, exhausting and disappointing morning with an already difficult season upon us.

Wish me luck as I continue toward my Mary Poppins goal…Practically perfect in every way.