Mommy Training

When Sky was in Japanese preschool, I had to remember to do a lot.

On Monday, he needed to be sent to school with freshly washed and perfectly folded art smock, luncheon mat, a sparkling clean tea cup, and small towel for drying his hands (rolled up just so and placed inside of the tea cup which was then placed in its own special bag). He also needed to take his hand-washed shoes in his spanking clean shoe bag, his book bag, his back pack, his colored hat, and his gym clothes (also washed, folded, and placed in the special gym clothes bag just right). And, oh yeah, his painstakingly prepared and cutely decorated boxed lunch (obento).

When walking to school in the spring and summer months, he needed his straw hat with the special pin that identified which school he attended.

On Tuesday, he needed to take his special bread plate in its specially-made bread plate bag and his fork and spoon set, but not his obento since it was school lunch day.

On Wednesday, his tea cup and small hand towel came home for a mid-week wash, and I needed to remember to pick him up at 11:30 instead of 2:30.

On Thursday, he needed another cutely constructed obento, and I had to remember to wash his gym clothes which were sent home on Thursdays so they could be perfectly prepared for sports day on Fridays. I also had to remember which were the "onigiri" days when kids were supposed to take rice balls for lunch instead of full-on obentos so they could think about children who are in need.

On Friday, I had to remember to dress him not in his uniform and straw hat but in his gym clothes and colored cap and send him to school with his bread plate and utensils. And when everything came home on Friday, including his indoor and outdoor shoes, I had to remember to wash them all by hand again and prepare them to start over the next week.

(The Friday outfit worn by everyone on "Sport's Day.")

Somehow, I managed to remember these things and all the thousands of other things that the school required of me--this in spite of the fact that I was trekking all over Tokyo meeting with scholars and tracking down impossible-to-find-sources for my dissertation.

So, why is it that, now that we are back in the US, I simply cannot remember to send Sky's library book with him on Wednesday mornings?