Paperwork

Monday was the meet & greet at the boys’ school. Kids were able to meet their new teachers and parents were handed a mountain of paperwork to complete.

Thank goodness I only have the two kids. My wrists are not up to completing paperwork for more.

The paperwork began with being sent to the principal’s office for a ‘911 verification’. 911 verification is for proof you actually reside in the county. Apparently there was some question about it, despite the fact that my kids are returning students and would have needed this last year. I say “Sure here is my driver’s license”. She says “No. I need something else, like a utility bill.”

Well, I don’t walk around with those in my purse. Most of my bills are e-notifications now anyway. So she suggests a check. I haven’t written a check in ages. I don’t even know where my current checkbook is. (though I do know where the book is for the account I had in 1998).   What is wrong with a DL? They would have had to mail me the form for it. I did end up finding the top part of a refund check the ER sent me that was addressed to me. It was a plain white piece of paper with my name & addy typed in the left hand corner. No business logo, no other info, just my name & addy.

But that was acceptable & my driver’s license was not.

I was then handed the back to school paperwork – mountain A & mountain A (2)

In real life, Havoc & Mayhem have very similar names and I have been known to use them interchangeably so filling out two identical sets of forms, each about 12 pages, gets confusing for me. I’ll start filling out Havoc’s data, get distracted & continue on with Mayhem’s. And I did write ‘Mayhem’ in the ‘child’s name’ area once, as well as writing my own name and age when asked for Havoc’s

Then they ask me difficult questions like “father’s name” and “work phone”.

DH is known by his middle name. Only his 2 closest friends and telemarketers use his first name. But sometimes a full legal name is needed, like on a car loan. I have no idea how ‘official’ these school forms are. Will they be part of the boys’ permanent record? Are they what is used to compare to when a parent picks up a child at school unexpectedly? Are they just busy work to make parents feel they are involved in the education process? So sometimes I write down just DH’s middle name and sometimes I write down his first name. Sometimes I do both on the same form, which makes it look like I had a child with my husband’s brother.

But this is a rural area, and we are from West Virginia originally…

They also want every phone number remotely connected with you in case of emergency. DH has a cell phone that is glued to his head. I call him on that. I have called his main office number maybe twice in 4 years and the last time I had to look it up in the phone book. I used to know his direct dial number but only if I didn’t think about it. It ends 2870 or maybe 2780 or possibly 7280. I can dial it, but I can’t tell you what it is and if I pause to remember what I am dialing, I forget what I am dialing. So the ‘work phone’ box is tricky for me. I can give them my cell number, but my phone doesn’t work at the house and isn’t always on when I am away from the house. If you can’t reach us at the house or on DH’s cell there really is no point in trying other numbers. But they have called me in the past to ask “Do you have work number ma’am? You left that blank.”

I’m hoping they call about the various names of my sons’ fathers.