THE DAILY TABLE::You've Been Warned

"The straps on her top today are not wide enough." We got our first dress code infringement email this morning from our daughter's teacher. It baffles me since Saffron's been wearing these types of shirts since school started in August. Why mention this now?

"If she wants to wear tank tops, she must wear a sweater over them." Wait. Are you talking about "tank tops" or shirts with "spaghetti straps"? Do you mean to tell me that when the Texas sun is shining and it's 80 degrees outside she should be overheating in a sweater? I deferred the response emails to my husband.

"We tell the kids straps must be 3 fingertips wide", continues the teacher in the email following my husband's response. "Whose fingertips?", I ask my husband. The code simply states:

 
• No strapless tops, spaghetti-strap tops, backless, halters, large armholes, or off-the-shoulder
tops

There is no mention of fingertips or tank tops. And we've combed thoroughly through this document. According to this, we are not in violation of the code. The shirt is not a halter top, nor are the straps anything close to being spaghetti straps. It's silly, really. She's 6 years old! What is this world coming to when we worry obsessively about the details of our children's clothing? Shouldn't we be more concerned about the quality of education? Shouldn't we worry more about offering truly healthy foods in school cafeterias? Shouldn't we worry more about providing a comfortable learning environment for the students instead of nitpicking one thing or another? Parents have plenty to worry about when it comes to their children. Dealing with something like this is absurb and borders on harrassment.

"If the school district is so concerned about dress code, why not introduce uniforms? Lots of schools do it.", replies my husband. Yes, indeed. If the school district is so concerned about clothing, then please have everyone dress alike. Please, take away our children's individuality. Lesson plan be gone. Let's focus on clothing instead.

Seriously, I have more important things to focus on. Such as feeding my children. Dinner was much better today - baked chicken and mashed potatoes. Even though I should have cleaned the oven long ago - and especially after the half-stick of butter started dripping last Tuesday after nearly fell through the bars of the oven rack - I still used it to bake the chicken. The dripping butter incident was the night I was making the puffy pancake - last Tuesday. I had the butter speared on the end of a knife. Unfortunately, it slid off the knife and started to drip onto the bottom of the oven and smoke the entire house. I opened windows and hoped the fire alarm would not go off.

Sagey still wasn't feeling well, so he went directly to bed. The girls did manage to eat at least a little of the chicken. The cat will have delicious leftovers.

I'm glad the weekend is finally here...