Things My Sons Forget

Lunches
Shin guards
Sweatshirts
Saxophone
Clarinet
Texbooks
Music

My sons are driving me nuts with forgetting their stuff. I'm not talking about forgetting to do stuff, like put away their clean laundry or do their math homework--although that certainly happens, too. I'm talking about forgetting their stuff. They have very busy lives with lots of activities--music, sports, school, and friends--and I know it takes a lot of energy to keep track of all the items needed for these activities. (Not to mention all of MY mental energy it takes to keep track of all the places they have to be at what time, but that's another issue.) I know they don't mean to forget, and there are lots of things every day that I'm impressed that they DO remember. But...it seems that nearly every day at least one of them forgets something.

Today my older son forgot his lunch, which wouldn't be such a big deal except I know for a fact that he has only $1 in his wallet that he owes to his friend for buying him a churro yesterday, and he has the big season semi-final soccer game right after school, so he needs energy. And no, I don't want to go back to school and drop it off to him! I guess he'll survive.

My younger son announced five minutes before we were to leave the house this morning that he had forgotten the combination to his locker, where he is supposed to put his backpack during the dance today after school. It seemed very strange to me indeed that he would suddenly forget his locker combination in early November, but it turns out he never uses it. He can't remember if he wrote it down. He can't remember where the little card with the combination that came with the lock is, except it might be in his locker. They won't allow backpacks in the dance so he has to find somewhere to stash it. What else can I do but tell him, "I'm sure you'll work it out."