Where's CDC When You Need Them?

The other night was our Parent/Teacher Conference in honor of our youngest daughter, who’s in the 4th grade. Now, just the anticipation of a P/T Conference can send the average parent into a state of trembling, panic and gut-wrenching dread – but not Hubby and I.

We have seven kids. Let’s say, for the sake of numbers, that the oldest kids all had seven P/T conferences apiece (one per year – Kindergarten through 6th grade). There’s 42 conferences right there. You can easily see why we don’t even break a sweat any more when we walk into the school for the annual event.

In 42 previous conferences, we have heard everything there is to hear – the good, the bad – the ugly. We are certifiable professionals now on social skills, leadership skills, reading skills, science skills, geography skills, math skills – heck, we even know skills on improving one’s skills. We could write a book on how to ace the P/T conference.

So, you can imagine that our confidence level was pretty high the other night as we got ready to casually stroll in, sit down with the teacher, and hear what we’ve heard 42 times before. Nothing can shock us – nothing can surprise us – nothing can strike fear in our hearts.

Or so I thought.

An hour before we were to leave, one of my dear Facebook friends forewarned me that, upon entering the school, we were going to be walking into a virtual petri-dish of H1N1 – with every desk, every chair – heck, every pencil! – saturated with the dreaded Swine Flu virus.

ACK!

I hope the teacher understood when we walked in, dressed in haz-mat suits, rubber gloves, face masks, and carrying a can of Lysol in each hand.

Peace.