Today, I woke up early, did my yoga, meditated, and felt calm, centered, and ready to take on the day. I even planned to get to school extra early because Adriana wanted an extra day of helping with Best Buddies.
But then, the purple shirt happened.
Today was class picture day. And, of course, the girls’ elementary school requires a very specific, very essential, and very singular purple uniform shirt. The challenge? We only have one.
And because the universe enjoys a good laugh, both Adriana and Alexandra needed it today.
Did I, in my peaceful morning state, remember to check on the shirt ahead of time? Of course not. Because Adriana had worn it yesterday.
When Adriana woke up and began to get ready, she remembered she needed to wear her purple shirt. After a few minutes of her searching she begins to show signs of frustration, she is not able to find her purple shirt. After a frantic search, we found it.
In the washer. Mid-cycle.
I pulled it out, wrung out the excess water (with the strength of a mother who just realized we are now officially LATE), and threw it in the dryer. We had hope. We had a plan. We even started laughing about the utter ridiculousness of it all—stressing over a shirt like it was a life-or-death situation.
And so we waited. 7:20. 7:30. 7:40.
At 7:45, I pulled it out, expecting it to be dried.
Instead? Still… WET …. How? After 45 min on the high temperature setting?
Adriana, bless her determined little heart, was ready to wear the wet shirt because, in her mind, wearing anything else meant absolute failure to her and disappointed by her teacher.
So, naturally, we were now late.
We rushed out the door, the still-wet shirt in hand, hoping for a miracle at the school office. Thank G-d, Alexandra’s teacher had already given us a pass and said she could wear a regular uniform shirt—one small mercy in this morning’s disaster.
The Moral of the Story?
There’s a special kind of parent guilt that creeps in when something as ridiculous as a purple shirt makes you feel like you’ve failed. Because the world tells us we should have been more prepared. More organized. More on top of it. And when we’re not? Well, clearly, we’re not good enough.
But you know what? Life is full of purple shirt moments. The forgotten homework, the missing vocab packets, the constant school pressures—it can all feel like a lion is constantly chasing us. But in reality? It’s not that serious.
So today, I choose to laugh. Because if we don’t, we’ll drown in all the not enoughs. And honestly? I’d rather be a little bit of a mess (we are not perfect) than lose my mind over a f*cking purple shirt….
AwakeInnate 