Sunny’s Mom Struggle of the Week: I Missed My Kid’s Preschool Graduation [Happy Mother’s Day]

Do you ever have that feeling that you're forgetting something really important but you can't remember what it is that you're forgetting? So you decide to wait and just let it come to you? Well that happened to me recently, except what I was forgetting never came to me and I forgot about it completely, until today.

My kid came home from school today with a gift for me for Mother's Day. Excitedly, I unwrap the paper and find a photo of my son smiling as wide as he can in a cap and gown at preschool graduation. Then all of a sudden it clicked, and I almost freaked out. I missed my kid's graduation. Thoughts flooded my mind. "You're the worst parent alive," "You suck," "I bet your kid is upset that you weren't there," all populated my mind in a panic. I did not cry, although I came very close.

I apologized to my son over and over.

Then my son says, "It's okay mom, we can still celebrate."

My natural response out of complete guilt is, "Sure, of course, of course, we can. We can have a graduation party."

Before I could explain that it would be a small party, like a little celebratory thing at home with a cake, his mind immediately went beyond the scope of my statement.

He says, "Yes! Of course! We can have a bouncy-house, prizes, games, and a cake and everything!"

His sweet little happy face prevented me from saying no to any of those things. As awful as this is going to sound, I wish I could take back offering the party. I should have chosen my words more carefully.

So I missed my child's preschool graduation ceremony and out of mom guilt, I offered him a party to make me feel better because ultimately he never cared that I missed the ceremony, to begin with. *Sighs*

What I should emphasize at this point is that I didn't just completely forget about the graduation for no reason. I am currently working on my Master's of Business Administration and am at the critical point of finishing my thesis. For part of my thesis, I had to finish live group simulations and the day I should have been at the ceremony was day two of intensive (6 hours) live business simulations. Not that it's not still my fault because it is, but that's the reason I forgot.

I composed a video about this incident, coupled with a very amusing quiz that my kid completed for me for Mother's Day. This quiz is basically how much your kid knows about you. Some of the answers are truly gut-busting. Moral of the story is, all parents forget something at some time or another and are sort of awful parents. I had that moment today. It was a doozie too. Check out my narration of the situation and my kid's quiz about me below: