Parent Approved Sluffing

In our area, fifth graders participate in the Dare program. It is funded and run by the unified police and teaches kids about substance abuse, peer pressure, and stress and provides them with some training in problem solving and decision making associated with those kinds of situations. For the kids who participate and complete an essay at the end telling what they have learned there is a graduation ceremony. This morning was Matthew’s Dare graduation. The officer assigned to our elementary school as well as the police chief and several other officers were in attendance (and due to a local man hunt that started on Saturday and was ongoing they all looked totally exhausted) to congratulate the kids.

After the graduation, the kids were treated to a field trip to Texas Roadhouse. The local location of this restaurant gives all Dare classes a tour of the kitchens, lunch, and teaches them some line dancing. Unfortunately, this particular restaurant serves peanuts on the tables and encourages tossing of peanut shells on the floor to be swept up at the end of the day. As such, it is a literal death trap for anyone allergic to peanuts. I felt like Matthew deserved a reward for completing the Dare program and since he couldn’t participate in the reward that all the other kids had, I checked him out of school and we went to the movies instead. It was far better than having Matthew sit at the school while the other kids had a great time. It was also far better than mopping the floors, which is what I would have been doing instead. And to top it all off, Matthew got to see “The Greatest Showman” before his older brothers. 😉