Mom Praises All Preschool Teachers After Her Son Brought a Dirty Sock to Show-and-Tell
After having a particularly difficult morning getting her 4-year-old son out the door and to school, Karen Johnson of The 21st Century SAHM decided to give a shout-out to all of the preschool teachers out there who not only take toddlers for who they are but, more importantly, love them and teach them anyway. And her post — inspired by the fact that even though her son walked into school holding a warm cheese stick and brought in a dirty sock for his letter "S" show-and-tell day, his teacher didn't judge her as a mother — will make any mom of a toddler feel seen.
"This is a shout-out to all preschool teachers. I truly cannot imagine the things you must see," Johnson wrote in a post to Facebook, which shared the tale of her "hot mess" morning:
We were running late. I told my 4-year-old to get in the car but he hadn't had breakfast yet. So I threw a cheese stick at him in the back seat (as all good mothers do) and told him to make sure he had it all eaten by the time we got to school.
Only after he hopped out and skipped happily into the building did I see it — from across the school lawn, a glimpse of a his chubby little hand, holding a white, slimy cheese stick that he'd been holding for ten minutes and never ate. And he walked right into school with it.
And then, later in the day, you lovingly accepted this dirty sock as his submission for Letter S show-and-tell day.
The mom continued, asking her son's teacher to know that she really does try, adding that she did her best to get him to choose from a number of other items that begin with "s" — like a soccer ball, for one — "but the dirty sock won because there are only so many battles this mama can fight." She also wanted to set the cheese stick record straight, sharing that she'd never willingly send her toddler to school with a warm, saliva-coated piece of cheese, but again, you have to choose your battles.
"Thank you for taking him, just as he is. For taking all of us. For loving him. For teaching him. For letting him throw his uneaten breakfast away and for saying, 'Yes, sock DOES start with S! Good job!'" she wrote. "I don't know how or why you do it, but love you."