You're not only letting yourself down, but...

My district taped the speech that President Obama gave on Tuesday to the students of our country. There was a ton of debate over it. Maybe I'm a simpleton, but I thought it was pretty cool. I can't remember a president making a speech to the students about anything (but then again, I didn't pay close attention so maybe they did). You might not agree with him, but he had some good points. We all need to work together to help today's kids.

But I digress.

We had to sign permission slips for our children in order for them to watch it. So I signed that Jack and Caroline could both watch it. At dinner that night we asked the kids what they thought about the speech and what they got out of it (if anything). Caroline said that kids needed to stay in school (not bad for a 6 year old). Jack said he got four things out of it: 1) you may not know now what you're good at, but someday you will, 2) school work isn't always easy, but you've got to try, 3) parents need to work with teachers to help their kids learn, and 4) you may not always like your teacher, but they usually do things that will help you (not bad for someone who throws a fit when you throw in extra homework at night). Jason and I were both impressed at what they kids got from it considering their age. Jack said that he thought it was cool the President would take time out of his day to talk to kids. That was about all we knew that the kids remembered from the President's speech until the next morning.

Caroline is not a morning person. She HATES it. Our rule is that on school days you don't talk to Caroline until you get to Grammy and Pa's house. That's how long it usually takes for her to get to the point of not being extremely grumpy. Well, on Wednesday she was extremely hating the morning. Everything was stupid and she hated EVERYTHING. Just the day before her teacher was wonderful and school was GREAT! But in just a few hours they were stupid. She sat, crying, in the back seat as we pulled out of the garage and said (over and over), "I hate school. It's stupid. I hate my teacher, she's mean. I hate the morning at school because it's boring. All we ever do is WORK! I hate school." and on and on.

Finally she says, "I HATE SCHOOL! I QUIT!"

To which Jack replies (as I'm cringing because I know what's going to happen), "Now Baby Girl. You can't quit. Because if you quit, you're not only letting yourself down, but your letting your country down."

Caroline and I are both shocked that this came out of his mouth.

After getting over her initial shock, all you hear is, "OH, SHUT UP!"