No School

When I was a single teacher, I loved those days off of school. Not the teacher workdays, but you know, President's Day, MLK Day, Memorial Day. Snow days were even better because you got them totally out of the blue.

Now I am a parent who works outside of the home. I hate those days off. They generally mean either taking a vacation day or scrambling to find care for Sweet Son #1 (temporarily renamed Mr. Snottyfacepants) and sometimes even for The Manimal. This messes with my routine, which God knows, puts me over the edge.

The normal holidays (President's Day, MLK Day, Memorial Day) are bad enough. Snow days are the worst, because I not only have to scramble to figure out what to do with the kiddies, but I have to battle the elements to get to work.

At least with the normal holidays, I know they're coming. When I moved to the Land of Lincoln, however, I had no idea that residency brought with it yet another holiday.

Enter Casimir Pulaski Day.

Celebrated the first Monday in March, this "holiday" celebrates one Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born General in the Continental Army during the American Revolution who, according to Wikipedia, has been called "the Father of the American Cavalry".

Now, I'm all for cultural heroes, and I understand that the Windy City has the largest Polish population outside of Poland. But why exactly does my child get a day off of school? Keep him there, teach him about Casimir, feed him paczki and kielbasa, but please, keep him in school when he's supposed to be in school.

Sorry all you teachers out there. I'm a firm believer in higher pay for deserving teachers and goodness knows, most of you deserve every day off you get. But have pity on a working parent who expects that her child be educated from 9-3 every weekday and not given random days off.