Parenting fail

Note: For some reason I never posted this when it happened last year. I'm posting it now because it still makes me laugh. I'm that mean.

Ben and I thought we were being totally clever when we came up with our April Fool's Day prank to the kids. We just had spring break this last week and the kids thought that it was back to school as usual today. That was not the case. Oh, we let them believe that there was school, that was for sure.

There are two things that you need to know about my kids. James is terribly anxious about being on time, especially for school. And Avery is a strict rule follower, especially school rules. We both know this and decided to take advantage. We should have known better.

Last night we hid all of the kids uniform clothes, backpacks, lunchboxes and one shoe from each pair that they own.

Avery came and woke us up in a panic at 7:15 this morning that we were going to be late. Ben told her to just put a show on and that he would be down to make breakfast in a little bit. We deliberately waited until after 8 to go downstairs (school starts at 8). We asked why they weren't ready for school yet and the waterworks started. James couldn't find his clothes, he was convinced that someone had broken into our house and stolen his laundry hamper. The next 15 minutes were filled with panicky, emotional moments of confusion and bewilderment. James kept saying this was the worst day ever and that he didn't understand why everything was going wrong. Since we couldn't find their lunchboxes and we were so late for school I told the kids just to take their bags of Easter candy for lunch. I think a normal kid would think this was awesome but not my kids. This was unheard of. They started crying even more, convinced that they were going to get into so much trouble for this.

So to add it all up, no uniforms, mismatched shoes, no backpacks, big ol bags of candy for lunch...the kids were a wreck and begging to not even go. We drove together as a family and I kept telling them I would walk them into school and explain to their teachers why we were late and stuff but that didn't really help. When we pulled into the parking lot I asked Ben what day it was today and the kids said, "it's Aprils Fool's." Even after Ben and I both said "April Fool's!" they didn't get it. We had to explain TWICE that there was no school and that it was all a joke. Once Avery got it she cried even harder and told us that it was not funny at all. Ben and I both spent the morning trying so hard not to laugh at their expense but we made up for it by taking them out to breakfast and making the rest of the day fun.

I think this situation alone will merit counseling for our kids.