Yesterday, I came downstairs in the morning to find that we were out of bagels. I'm not sure what happened; there were two left after breakfast the day before. Most likely, my mother-in-law fed them to the kids when she watched them on Thursday. No matter -- we were actually a bit ahead of schedule, so I told Jared and Sara we'd stop off for bagels on the way to school.

I got them dressed and ready to go and we headed out. Luckily, there is a bagel shop right on the way to Jared's school, so we stopped in. I have to admit, I was a mite proud of myself for being on time enough that we could stop. Jared wanted a wheat bagel with nothing on it -- so he wouldn't get his clothes dirty. Sara opted for a plain bagel, also plain.

We headed back to the car and I started to get Sara in. Jared started around to his side, but I guess he was too close to the front of the car -- he caught and tore his pants on the license plate frame. There he was, with a big rip in the knee of his pants. Now, while we were still early, we weren't early enough to be able to go home, get another pair of pants, and still get to school on time.

So the dillema I faced was, do I get him a new pair of pants or do I get him to school on time? Trying to figure out what Rachel would do in this situation was of no help; she would just pull out one of the spare pairs of pants she would have undoubtedly had already prepared for him. I, of course, had no spare pants, so I had to figure it out myself.

I decided that education was far more important than fashion, so I took him to school, torn pants and all. He didn't seem to mind, and I'm sure it didn't affect his learning in the least. I suppose, though, that not everyone would do the same. What would you have done in the same situation?