This past weekend, I chaperoned a choir trip to Disney World. Although the thought of warm weather was enticing, mine is not typically the first hand up when it comes to chaperone duties. I love kids, but I’m best at dealing with them one or two at a time. I’m the mom that doesn’t mind stuffing envelopes instead of doing playground duty or going to the pumpkin farm. Hide me in an office instead of on the bus with the kids. Truth be told, I’m not good with drama from other people’s kids.
But this was a different situation. It was a choir of all girls – 14 of them in all, including my daughter. They seemed like really nice kids, between the ages of 15 and 18. Then again, I’ll totally admit that I was cautiously optimistic at best. You never know with kids – especially girls. Will they be mean? Will they obsess over their hair? Will they fight with each other? Will they run around outside our hotel rooms all night long? Will they ostracize each other so that the quiet ones end up hanging with the chaperones?
Miracles of miracles, none of that happened. They were really nice. Sure, there were a few latecomers every day and I don’t even want to tell you how messy their hotel rooms became. (God bless the housekeeping service. They earned their paycheck this weekend.) But I have to say, this was the perfect trip to chaperone. There was virtually no drama.
You know what that means? The next trip I chaperone will be awful, just awful. I'm counting on it.
