No kid for you!. . .

Those unfamiliar with Parents as Teachers, it's a program that send out people to screen pre-pre-school kids to see if they are developing well and they educate parents on activities that they could be doing with their kids to keep them on track. And even though I know in the back of my head it should never happen every time we get ready to meet with our parent educator I worry that they're going to come in, see that our son likes to play with an old computer keyboard, tell us that it's an awful thing, and remove him from our home. I have to keep reminding myself it's Parents as teachers, not the department of family services.

We had our first home visit since moving in March, and with it we have a new parent educator. She was doing his yearly screening early. Again, just checking to see where he falls amongst his peers.

She asked him how old he was he responded "2 and a half." She asked "what will you be after 2" he said "6" and we all laughed, my wife and I a little nervously—like we failed him. Then this morning we realized that we had been teaching him that his birthday is the 26th. . . he was saying "2-6" for the date! And all day I've been fighting the urge to email our parent educator and tell her.

There was also the moment when I butted in and showed her that he can not only count but can identify all his numbers. . . and letters. And that was despite the fact that she had already marked him as being above average on every skills she checked.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with him being smart and doing well in school, I guess because I wasn't either of those things when I was young.

Or maybe I'm just worried they're going to take him away for neglect.