Field Trip

Friday was spent chaperoning Robby and his classmates on their field trip to the Air and Space Museum. He was adamant and excited for me to attend which is good because  my skipping the field trip was not going to happen. Since he has been born, I have taken great pains to reorganize my career so that I am available for chaperoning, assorted room mom duties etc.. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the flexibility to be able to participate in all of Robby's school events, even when that means I'll be spending the day trying to wrangle excited 6-year-olds in a highly stimulating museum!

Dressed in their identifying neon green school shirts, Robby looked adorable standing with his peers. Of course he was standing about 6 inches taller than all of them, a combination of his being tall and his insistence on wearing his cowboy boots. Although they were all dressed the same, it wasn't hard to pick out Robby!

When we arrived at the museum the class was split into two smaller groups. I felt an unexpected surge of pride when the majority of the class wanted to be in my group. At first I thought that their affinity stemmed from my reputation of being a super cool and fun Momom. That was quickly squelched when I heard a little girl lobby to be in my group by saying, "I want to be in Robby's group. He says his mom doesn't have to wait in lines because of her prosthetic. If I am in her group, I won't have to wait either."  So much for my being perceived as cool. The kids just wanted to reap a perk.

Despite my ego being leveled, we had a great time at the museum. Robby was impressed by many of the exhibits, especially the ultra-light plane that was used to help birds migrate. I thought he would be in awe of the Space Shuttle, but the bird plane was the class favorite. I am sure we spent more time reading about and examining the bird plane than we did the Shuttle.

The class attended a seminar about astronauts and (thankfully) they were all well behaved. I was certain that Robby would emerge from the lecture with a renewed interest in becoming an astronaut. A few months ago it was all astronaut, all the time in our house. I prepared to be inundated with space questions from my young little explorers. After trying on space gloves and boots, the group came skipping out of the auditorium and all wanted to go look at the bird plane again. To my surprise they were unimpressed by the astronauts.

During lunch I finally got to the root of the astronaut aversion. The museum volunteer showed the class an astronaut diaper, which is worn during space walks etc.. Instead of finding this interesting, the six year olds found it repulsive. Now none of the previously aspiring young astronauts want to be "spacemen" because none of them want to wear a diaper. They seemed to have missed everything that was said after the diaper!

Despite squelching Robby's astronaut aspirations, the field trip was a success. I had a wonderful time spending the day with Robby and his classmates. I know that someday having me accompany him on a field trip might not be his preference so I plan on making the most of each opportunity.