We made an oops.  Or rather, I made an oops.  I make a lot of them, but this one is bugging me.

The week that my husband was laid off was also the week of the first parent-teacher conference.  We both went in and talked to our son's teacher.  It was pretty simple and straight forward, we told her about the change in our financial situation, agreed on educational objectives, and went home.

And our world, held together with savings, some spit and a little duct tape, continued to turn.

November flew past.  So did December.  January took its time though.  We dug ourselves out of snow again and again.  The treadmill broke.  We got an offer on our house.  Interview calls and video conferences started coming in.

Meanwhile I was griped at by our son's piano teacher because he wasn't practicing enough.  We missed a couple of club and scout meetings.  I cleaned like a maniac before anyone came to look at the house.

In February we sold our house. We came to an agreement where we're staying in the house until the end of the school year, but it doesn't belong to us anymore.  Some consulting work opened up and we can breathe again.  And the second round of parent-teacher conferences are up.

This is when I learned I'd made an oops. Because of our son's IEP we end up having twice the usual number of parent-teacher conferences, and I hate going to them alone.  Still, travel kept my husband from attending and these conferences are important, so Thursday night found me sitting down at a knee level table with our son's teacher.

Less than a minute into our conference I realized that I had left someone out of the loop: our son's teacher.  Although we had talked in November, she wasn't aware of all the changes in our family situation and our upcoming move.  She had noticed a difference in demeanor and behavior, but lacking the communication from home she didn't know how to take it.

We got lucky.  By we I mean our son, his teacher, and the two of us as parents.  There aren't any failing grades on his report card or botched standardized tests to explain at a new school.  Now that some things are falling into place we can focus on his needs and make sure that he's getting the support he needs.  I've added reminders to my calendar to call in to his teacher just to keep her up to date.  We're all in this together, and it's a much easier boat to row when we know what direction we're pulling in.