I’m generally a punctual person; I’m never late to a meeting and get annoyed when things don’t start on time. But for some reason, I just can’t seem to care about the fact that Zana’s school starts at 9am.

Every day, I roll up to her school at 9:15 only to be met by a locked door. I have to call the school to have one of the teachers let us in. There’s always a loud sigh on the other end of the phone line and a disapproving look when they come to the door. In the weekly newsletter, there’s always a blurb about school starting promptly at 9. Over the months the text has gone from plain text to what it is now: bold, red and in all caps. I know they’re shouting at me.

At our parent-teacher conference, the teachers said they had one important thing to discuss with me: punctuality. I tried to change the topic. “How’s Zana doing at nap time? Is she eating her lunch? Playing well with friends?”

“Zana’s doing great. But it’s really important that you get here on time so she can start the day with her friends.”

I explained that we live further than the other families, that I have to drop of Lira first, and that the punctuality problem would probably persist.

Fast forward to today…

It was just another day; we were late. I could tell you that Zana was up coughing all night, which made for a slow start this morning– but, let’s be honest, we would have been late either way.

When I pulled up outside the school, though, something was different.. two other parents were standing there with their kids looking stressed out.

“Do you know the number to call to get them to open the school?” they asked. “We’re freezing out here and don’t know who to call.”

“Of course!” I said. “And if you guys would be late more often, then you’d have the number on speed dial like I do.”

And just like that, I went from zero to hero… saving the day with my standard, morning phone call.

“Hi there, it’s me.” (I don’t have to tell them my name anymore.) “Could you come open the door, please? There are a few kids waiting to come in.”

I didn’t get a sigh or a condescending look! It felt awesome… like I had won something. But what?

For the rest of the day, the “Real Men of Genius” soundtrack has been playing in my head. The ones that Bud Light used to run?

“Here’s to you Mrs. Can’t Get Your 2-Year-Old to School on Time…”

Too bad I couldn’t crack open a Bud Light to celebrate.

MomInDCity readers, are your kids ever late to school?