On Being Self-Sufficient

As somebody who has led projects and managed resources, and at the same time, has a team to deliver a different set of project portfolio for the year, I know that being self-sufficient is a highly admirable trait. These self-sufficient folks know what they need to do to achieve their objectives and require very mininal supervision. However, if you see this trait on a 6-year old kid, it's just a bit freaky.

My son's new teeth are growing and he had a bit of a cold. Hence, he had fever for the past few days. This meant that he had to miss classes for a few days.

Unfortunately, on the same day, I had to stay overnight in the office because our activities (legitimate project activities) lasted till 5am and I still had to go to work a few hours after. My son, being the self-sufficient little human being that he is, actually wrote himself an excuse letter and requested his nanny to bring it to his teacher.

It read: "Dear Ms. Mercado, I cannot go to school today because I have fever." Then he signed his name at the end. (NOTE: For a guy, my son has a neat handwriting.)

Of course, the teacher was tickled pink when she received the letter. The nanny came home still holding the same excuse letter. She said that the teacher cannot accept a self-made excuse letter. It has to be signed by the parents. But she did get a good laugh out of it.

Geez. I mean I know that my son is more mature than most kids his age, but to have the perception that an excuse letter is needed (he saw me write several before), and to actually compose his own letter is just beyond being self-sufficient. It's downright scary.

Needless to say, I had some explaining to do the very next day. I did manage to produce a typewritten legitimate excuse letter and hand it over to the teacher personally. Fortunately, she had a sense of humor as well, so no harm came out of it.

Next thing I know, my son would be writing himself his own prescription for cough medicine.