 Did you get Emily's present? Yep, it's all in here. I even managed to get some paper and a card, so that'll save me a trip on the way home. That's good. You doing anything special with Emily tomorrow? Oh, I'm sure she'll be up early for a presence. And then we're just having a special dinner and a cake tomorrow night for her. She's not taking the day off school? No. No, actually, she didn't even ask. She's having a couple of friends over on the weekend to celebrate her birthday, and she's really excited about that. So I don't think the thought even crossed her mind, actually. No, Abby didn't take the day off school either. Actually, I think she liked going to school on a birthday. Yeah. I suppose it depends on the kid. I guess if you want to take a day off every now and then for a special occasion, you can't see the harm in that. Yeah, I used to think it didn't make too much of a difference, but one of Caleb's teachers showed us a graph at a parent teacher night, which explained how missing even just a few days of school can really make quite a difference academically. Really? Yeah. Yeah, he also said that it's really important for kids to develop good habits at a very early age, like always being on time and starting their homework early and being at school all day every day, unless they're sick, of course. I suppose it makes sense. And I guess if they took a day off for their birthday, well, they'd be wanting to take another day off further down the track for something else. It would all add up, wouldn't it? Yeah, and before you know it, they could have missed a couple of weeks over a year, which is a lot of learning they'd have missed out on. And other things, like time with friends, lunchtime activities. Abby's joined the Green Thumbs Club at lunchtime. She'd hate to miss that. And I know her friends are into music and sport. Oh, yeah, there's so much going on. Sometimes I wish I could go back and do it again. I'd be there every day. Yeah.