Check your work

As a teacher, I always wondered why it was so difficult to get kids to check their work. Now I know. Their parents don't check their work, either. This is how I know: I continually receive emails from people that I don't even know. And I'm not talking about those spam writers, although you'd think that if you were trying to trick someone into giving you their personal information you'd check your grammar and spelling. No, I'm talking about real life parents, like you and me, contacting a group, troop or team of which they are in charge.

You may remember Emma who emailed me thinking I was her mommy. I understand that. She's young. She made a mistake. Once her mistake was pointed out to her, she corrected it.

So how hard is it to take an email off of a registration form and type it into your computer? It must be extremely difficult because I am currently receiving emails from two different individuals, neither of whom lives in my state (I know, they have their addresses and phone numbers as their signature). The first believes that she is Girl Scout leader to someone in my family and the second thought she was my son's (which one?) soccer coach. The other Girl Scout mothers and I are currently in discussion about where we should have our summer camp-out. The other mothers are voting for some cushy indoor camp but I've chimed in with my pick, an outback option with no plumbing, no cabins, no comforts of home.

I've had the most fun with the soccer coach. So far we've had the following conversation (Identifying information has been removed):

She first wrote to her whole team, and me:
Attached is the schedule for practices through mid-May. Game schedule will follow after April 14. Please also note that April 21st is Picture Day for our team - as of now, our team is scheduled for 4:30 PM. Thanks!

So I replied:
Jedidiah is wondering if he can wear a Halloween costume to picture day? I said it's okay with me if it's okay with you. Thanks. Delilah King Anderson

Her response:
Did you mean to send this to another manager? I think [different child] is on our team. Thanks.

My reply:
I'm so sorry I'm just now getting your message. We had a little family emergency here. Oh, I hope this isn't a mistake. Jedi is so excited for soccer season to start and for team picture day. He has his Scooby Doo costume already out, ready to go. He's that excited. With his disabilities, he gets disappointed so often that I would hate to tell him it's all a mistake. Could you please look into this for me and let me know? Delilah King Anderson (You might find that my last name is listed as either McBride or Kelly on your roster. I can't remember if I signed him up before or after my last marriage)

She's so sweet. She quickly responded with:
We will get this figured out. How old is Jedediah? Our team is U14 boys.

My comeback:
Jedi is 13. You'll love him. He's a great kid. It's such a shame we had to leave his former team but for reasons I won't explain in an email, we had to leave Washington state pretty quickly. Would it help if I volunteered as assistant coach? I do have some sports experience having studied gymnastics for 16 years before breaking my arm in a very unfortunate balance beam accident. It's a real shame; I could have gone to the Olympics, I'm certain. Anyway, I watch soccer all the time with Jedidiah. We especially love the Central American teams, don't you? If only the announcers spoke English!

I can't wait to find out how she plans to resolve this situation. And find it most humorous that she hasn't even addressed the fact that my 13 year old son wants to wear a Scooby Doo costume for soccer picture day. Oh my! She is indeed a very kind woman. I'm voting for her for soccer coach of the year!

The moral of the story is: If you are a soccer coach and you've gotten a reply from one of your players who you don't think is really your player and the mom seems a bit (okay, a lot) crazy, PLEASE double check the email address! In the meantime, my kids sure will enjoy this example of what might happen if they don't check their work.

*****************************************************
THIS JUST IN!!!!

10:34 AM Addition - She replied:
Good morning. We are on spring break right now but I want to resolve this. Are you registered with W------ County? I ask because Jedi is not on our roster. I also checked on the other U 14 team and he's not there either. You got the first email from me because your email address is exactly like one of our players except they use a z instead of an s. So this confusion is entirely my fault! I am sorry for that.

Let me know if he is registered with W------ County and we will go from there. I think there is still room on our team so that's a good thing.

And I sent my last (*sigh) email to her:
Oh! My! Goodness! I think you've found the problem! We are NOT in W------ County! Can you believe it? Just one letter wrong in an email address and what a mess it makes! Wow! Wow! Wow! I just can't stop saying Wow! I guess it pays to double check when typing, huh? One never knows what might happen otherwise. Well, I guess we've got one whopper of a story that we'll be talking about for a long time, huh? I bet this one could even go viral. What do you think?

I appreciate you looking into this, and your honesty, and I absolutely accept your apology. Wow! Wow! Well, that's too bad. Jedidiah was really looking forward to this and I was really pumped about learning soccer so I could help you coach. You sound like a great person and I hope we meet in person someday. Wouldn't you be surprised if that really happened?

Your new friend in cyberspace (but NOT in W------ County :),
Delilah (But you can call me Dee since we're friends now)