The New Normal, a freewrite

"But it's below ZERO Mom! They won't even let us go out for recess at school if it's below 32! Making us go out to play in this is CHILD ABUSE!"

Out I sent them anyway. Out out out out of my hair for a half hour. That's all I needed, thirty minutes of alone time. I spent a full hour getting them all appropriately bundled up to go out so I could have 30 minutes of peace.

Out they went. The dog too. I put up a pot of coffee, and sat where I could see them perfectly well. They had a great time, came in after an hour because the hot chocolate I had made them was ready, and we had a lovely evening talking about how nice it was to get exercise outside, especially when it was cold out.

The following Tuesday, I was summoned to the pricipal's office. I expected the summons to be to address the snarky attitude of my youngest's, who, to her credit, took no crap from anyone, not even teachers. I admired her for it.

But it turned out her essay for Monday's "What did you do this weekend" assignment, ruffled some feathers. All the other children told stories about what they did online, who they talked to on the phone, what they saw on social media, or what they watched on TV. My daughter started her presentation with "I didn't want to go outside because it was BELOW ZERO, but my mother made me do it."

Child Protective Services was waiting for me when I arrived,

This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite challenge. Today's prompt is below zero.

Child protective services are a joke. In my experience, it's either a school official or a doctor who reports a parent for neglect or abuse. Is this really a risk you want to take?