Not liking this one little bit.

I don't even know where to start with this, but I'm angry and I have to get it out. I apologize in advance, if I ramble. Wait, no I don't. I do like to ramble as my blog name indicates. :P

Daniel started school this morning. I found out on Friday that they put him in the afternoon class instead of the morning class. I protested, but they refused to move him. Whatever, it's not the end of the world, but it's not what I wanted for him. He was up at 9 this morning and ready to go and I had to keep telling him "not yet". He was cute. Additionally, the teacher told me on last Tuesday that she didn't know who came when, but that that the bus driver would call me to tell me whether he was going in the morning or afternoon. No call came, so I called transportation on Friday afternoon and learned he was scheduled for the afternoon. The bus driver finally called this morning! Nice, right?! I'm not even putting him on a bus. He's my baby and there's no way I'm putting my baby on a school bus without a car seat.

But what really set me off right now is this: I get him to school today at 1:15 and clearly the teacher is not used to parents who have brains asking questions about the procedures. She seemed annoyed that I was there and didn't just do what every other parent did and just send him to school by himself. Seriously?! He's 4 years old. Anyway, Daniel tells the teacher's helper that he has a lunch box (cause he was excited) and she says "Mrs. Hobby, Daniel has a lunch box." Mrs. Hobby sighs heavily and says to me "all the kids eat when they first get to school, but he has to eat the lunch the school provides." Um, say what?! She quickly tells me that "it's free" like that would make a difference to me. I say, "um no, he's not eating that crap. He's picky, he won't eat it. He'll then be hungry and cranky and you'll have your hands full." So she proceeds to tell me that she'll have to call home office and get special permission for me to pack his lunch. Seriously? It's public freaking school! Since when do you have to have permission to pack a lunch?

I mean, I sorta understand where they're coming from: all kids eat the same thing and there's no fighting over the cool snacks, but hello, that happens in school, and will happen for the rest of his school career. It's just the way it is. It's the same with clothes, ya know? Some kids get nice ones, some don't. Some kids buy all the supplies on the school's list, some are lucky to get a pencil. It's just the way things are in public school.

Am I over-reacting? I mean, maybe, maybe, if I would have known BEFORE school started that I couldn't pack his lunch, maybe I would have been OK with it, maybe. But right now, I'm not OK with it. He was so excited to have his lunch that he started carrying it around the house with him as soon as he got out of bed. His brother's pack a lunch every day. He wants to be like them. How can I now tell him that he doesn't get to take his lunch anymore?!