‘Tis the season for A-thons in our house.

We have been busy hounding our friends and family to pledge our kids in their attempt to swim 5kms in 2 hours in their second ever Swim-A-Thon through their swim team.

Please note: I could attempt this swim 100 times and drown a little bit more every time.

As a parent, I should have remembered that other very important a-thon this time of year, the school Read-a-thon, but it completely slipped my mind until my three kids came skipping home with the forms including the reminder of the tax receipt option if you sponsored more than you could afford and the statement to be witnessed and notarized pledging you will read X number of minutes/day to be excused only in death.

I remember as a kid spending a lot more time doctoring the form to make it look like I had read tons of books than I actually spent reading. This after so eagerly crossing my heart that I would read 4000 minutes/day after the chance to win a sparkly, rubber ball from Dollarama was dangled in front of us at our school assembly. Go books! Let’s bounce!

Chloe, our four year old handed me the forms the way you would an apple core. No idea why there was any value attached and might start exuding an off-putting smell if she didn’t rid herself of it immediately.

Ellie, age 8, looked me in the eyes, handed over the envelope and said, “Mom, I need to start reading right now so I’ll get a stack of books, you write down the time on the microwave right now and start emailing our relatives to get me some pledges.”

I asked Hanna, age 10, “Hey, did you get any Read-a-thon forms at school today?”

Hanna: I’m not sure, you can check my bag.

I explained to Ellie then, as I did again this morning over a lot of tears sogging up her cereal, “We’ve already asked everyone we know to sponsor you for the Swim-A-thon so Daddy and I will sponsor you girls $25 (tax receipt!) for the Read-a-thon.”

Ellie couldn’t stop crying.

“Since when is swimming more important than reading?!!!”

She totally has a point. How did we get so derailed on this one?

“I guess since the swim-a-thon forms came home before the read-a-thon forms?”

In either scenario, someone better win a bouncy ball.