It took 8.76 miles

The safety and well-being of my children is not up for debate, discussion, misinterpretation or miscommunication.  Period.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the most laid-back person in the world.  However, as quickly as I am to anger, I am fairly quick about getting over things too.

Unless you mess with my children.

So, when I walked Maya into preschool this morning and discovered that the preschool classroom was devoid of adults, that was a problem for me.  We pay a lot of money to send her to the best preschool I could find.  It is well beyond our budget, but it was a great experience for Eva.  So, we scrape the tuition together every month.  With this absurd amount of money, we pay for three teachers to be in charge of the class.  This morning, only one of those teachers could be found, and she was just opening the front door for the four year olds to wander through.

No one made sure they went to the right class.
No one made sure they weren't hurting themselves or others.
No one made sure they weren't burning the school down.
or choking.
or crying.
or scared.
or that there wasn't a random adult in the room with them.
Nothing.

I don't usually walk Maya all the way in to the big classroom.  She likes it when I walk her inside to her coat hook, hug her, and get on my way.  But this morning I had to pay the tuition, so she agreed to let me walk her all the way inside.  This is the only way I knew what was happening. So, all of the parents who dropped their kids off at the door or left them at their coat hooks had no idea that they were sending their babies in to -------- no one.  These are four year old kids... not the most independent of our species.  After ten minutes and one other mother walking in to find the teachers MIA, the lead teacher wandered in and wondered aloud where the others were.  She didn't believe me that the kids were unattended.  She looked behind bookshelves like we were playing a big game of hide-and-seek.  I'm not kidding.  Finally, after going to get a teacher from another class to watch our preschoolers, one of the missing teachers wandered around the corner.  By the time I left, all three of the people who were supposed to look after my four year old were accounted for.  Unfortunately, the same could not be said for my peace of mind.

I was shaking when I finally pulled out of the parking lot.  My blood pressure was set to boiling.  It took an 8.76 mile run before the homicidal visions were blurred in my head.

I want to believe this was a one time thing, as the email waiting for me after my run said.  But, I don't take chances with the safety and well-being of my girls.

And that is not up for debate, discussion, misinterpretation or miscommunication.  Period.