Vindication

I have mentioned before a message board I frequent. It is there I "learned" about things I would never have even thought about before. Things like Carnival Christmases, the atrocity that is character clothing (unless it comes from a boutique) and the evil of light up shoes. Don't get me wrong, I have also received helpful tips from these women, but some of the things they consider to be big "no-no's" are things I do and have done without a second thought.

The latest no-no was that we should not, under any circumstances, give teachers homemade food. By extension, I was told, the homemade sugar scrub was also a bad idea. You see, the teacher doesn't know if we are clean people. She doesn't know if we wash our hands. She doesn't know if we sneezed while making homemade salsa. So purchased items are the only acceptable gifts.

Now, I actually take great offense that someone might think we are so gross they would not eat from our kitchen. She knows me, she know my kid. We are clean. But more than that I was offended that it would be MY problem that the teacher might have an issue with homemade goods. Her hang-up would be her problem, not mine. And whatever happened to "it's the thought that counts?" And I didn't even know if she had a hang-up about it, but the message board gals assured me that she would and that most likely my goodies would go straight into the garbage.

I steamed and stewed. I mean, while I could go out and purchase something small for every event, not everyone has that in their budget. And plus, aren't we supposed to teach kids that things made by hand and from the heart, with love, are the best, most special kinds of gifts?

In the end, we went ahead and made the salsa and the sugar scrub, as most of you know. I figured if she threw it out, I would never know and Curly had the joy of making something special and unique for her teacher.

Well, to be juvenile for just a minute, you can all suck it, Message Board Ladies, because the teacher called this weekend to tell me how much she loves the scrub and could she please have the recipe to make some for when Curly's ran out? And she also mentioned that she loved the salsa as well and would it be possible for me to write that down too? She said I was quite the creative and handy gal and that the gifts were so special to her as they had clearly taken a good bit of love and effort.

Vindication is a very, very, very good thing. So ha-ha-ha.

Tomorrow I will go back to being a grown-up. But for now I will just revel in being right.