As my wife backed out of the driveway on her way to work, she rolled down the window and called my name.

“Good luck with school today,” she said, “and make sure the kids don’t miss any more zoom meetings.”

I grinned and waved back. “I’ll make sure they get on them all.”

As I turned to walk back to the house I remembered what happened 23 hours earlier. I was determined not to let that happen again.

It was Monday morning, the start of the second week of the virtual school year. As my kid’s kindergarten and third-grade virtual school teacher, I was trying to get their day moving, but they were stalling. Slowly eating their breakfast, asking me crazy questions, the usual routine. My one-year-old daughter was digging under the kitchen sink and pulling out a variety of cleaning items she shouldn’t be grabbing.

I picked up my toddler and saw the clock read 8:55 am. My son had to sign on to his 9 am Zoom meeting with his teacher.

“Let’s go, you both need to sign on your computers,” I told them as I headed upstairs.

We rushed into my son’s room and quickly joined the Zoom meeting. A minute later, the screen came on and his teacher started talking. Success! My son’s day was off to a great start. Now on to my five-year-old daughter.

I walked into my five-year-old daughter’s room. She had successfully signed on her computer and started working on her first assignment. Way to go! A successful start to week two of virtual school.

The time passed and I checked the email on my phone. There was a message from her teacher. It read:

“You’re receiving this message because your daughter missed our group meeting this morning. If you are unable to attend future Zoom calls, please let me know for attendance purposes.”

“What?” I thought to myself. “She didn’t miss a meeting.”

I read the email again, then checked the calendar on my phone. Oh no! She did miss a meeting, and it was my fault. Come on!

I turned and walked into her room. There she sat in her pink chair, happily in front of her computer.

“Hey, I have some bad news,” I started as she looked at me. “We missed your group meeting today.”

Her smiling face changed to a frown. “Oh no, I’m going to be in trouble. I should have signed on, it’s my fault.” She put her face in her hands and started to cry.

“No, it’s not your fault” I told my daughter as I put my arm around her. “I forgot. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She looked up and wiped away a tear. “It’s ok, Dad. We all make mistakes.” It’s always amazing how quickly five-year-olds can put things in perspective.

“Thanks,” I told her. “Let’s find out what we missed.”

I emailed her teacher and apologized that the meeting was missed. Minutes later, the teacher replied. We missed the reading of a book called, Beautiful Oops. The teacher sent me a recap and the assignment to work on.

How ironic that the meeting I forgot about was for a book that talked about how people can redeem themselves after making a mistake. What a great lesson to learn following my first oops of the virtual school year.