Donuts With Dad

Yesterday morning I (Adam) heard for the first time about an event at St Paul's Elementary school called Donuts with Dad. I just recently saw a photo in the local newspaper about an elementary school asking dads to come to school to help their kids with reading. So, when I heard about Donuts with Dad at St Paul's, I immediately assumed it would be the same thing.

I was wrong.

It was a trap.

Donuts with Dad is in conjunction with the Book Fair taking place this week at school. The book fair is an opportunity for Scholastic to sell books to kids at St Paul's - and I'm hoping the school gets a cut. We left the house at least 10 minutes earlier than normal so we could go to Donuts. Unfortunately, traffic turned what is normally a 12 minute commute into 25 minutes. We arrived to find the parking lot FULL of vehicles - presumably driven by dads who just wanted a good donut. And then, there was the line. The long line. The line that stretched the entire length of the building. There must have been 50 dads in line this morning waiting to cram into the tiny library. Christopher got progressively more and more excited as we got closer. In fact, he was chattering non-stop at everyone and anything. He wanted a Ninjago book that came with a ninja and a sword. That's it. Pretty simple request. And earlier in the morning we told him he'd have to pay for it with his own money. So, we counted his money before going in. He had $8.50 in quarters, nickels, dimes and dollar bills. We told him he could only afford a book that was $7.99 or less. This lead to a discussion about sales tax but that's for another post.

So, after the line wraps up and we've had our danish, we go in. Immediately he goes straight to where the ninja book had been whenever he last salivated over it a day or two ago. I proceeded to follow him.

It was gone.

He bounced around the room like a ping pong ball trying to find his book. He looked in the little kid books, the big kid books, the boy books, the girl books ... But to no avail, the ninja book with the sword was not there. We looked and looked. Nothing. Class was starting soon. The announcements were coming on and time was running out. I tried to persuade him by getting a Star Wars book instead, but that didn't work.

So, as the last person in line, I bought the Star Wars book. I thought this would at least satisfy the urge to have something from the book fair. I was wrong.

He held it together, but once we left the library, that's when it happened.

The buildup of anticipating Donuts with Dad, the later than usual bedtime, the early wake up, the sugar high from the danish, and then the let down ... As my wife says, "This can only end in tears."

The tears began to flow. Just a few at a time - not full on bawling but just enough where the other kids could probably tell when he went back to class.

I walked to his classroom and then we started our negotiations. I offered to take him shopping that evening. He said that was “No good” because the book fair is the only place for this particular book. Then, I offered donuts tomorrow morning at Dunkin Donuts. Not acceptable. I practically offered him everything I could think of just to help ease the pain and get him to class gently. He said he was so embarrassed that he didn’t get the book he wanted he couldn’t go back to class. Since skipping school wasn’t an option, we finally walked down the lonely hallway toward his classroom where his teacher had already begun her instruction. And we stood just outside the doorway and once more I made my pitch that we'd get the book somewhere else while he made his last ditch effort to get out of school for the day between small tears.

Cue First Grade Teacher Mrs. Keyser
She walked up and asked what was wrong. Christopher told her his version of the story (leaving out how he negotiated a trip to Barnes and Noble tonight and Dunkin Donuts tomorrow). She said, "Christopher, we could order the book."

What!!?? Order the book?!

Cue Librarian (who happened to be passing by).
"Yeah, Christopher, I'll order it right now and we'll have it by Monday."

So, whatever this book costs, we're now on the hook for it.

But Christopher went back to class and seemed satisfied.

To Be Continued …