Most of us can recall a time (or several) when we needed an absence note from our parents in order to be excused for school. It didn’t matter if it was due to an illness, family event, vacation, or appointment, the absence note was always short and to the point – rarely was the note longer than a sentence or two.
While that’s exactly what this Texas mother could’ve done for her daughter, she decided to take a different route – a fun one. Knowing that her daughter is going to need April 24 off of school – they’ll be attending Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Houston on April 23 – she decided to write a Swift-themed absence note.
In an interview with TODAY, Karen Vladeck explained that it was her daughter’s first time missing school for something outside of a sickness and she wanted to commemorate the moment in a funny way. She was hoping her teacher would find it amusing and that’s exactly what happened once she sent the email.
Vladeck posted the absence note on Twitter and it immediately went viral. “Here’s hoping my daughter’s 1st grade teacher is a Swiftie,” she wrote in the caption, sharing a photo of the email. It included a subject line that read, “It’s Me, Hi, I’m the Problem, It’s Me,” which was a nod to Swift’s popular ‘Anti-Hero’ song.
“Dear Reader [Ms. Parks], I’m writing to let you know that Maddie won’t be in school on 4/24 because she is going to the Taylor Swift concert in Houston,” the beginning of the email reads. It was originally going to be a one-sentence absence note, but the T-Swift references kept coming as she continued adding to it.
“I hope missing school doesn’t ruin her otherwise stellar Reputation, but she begged me to go and maybe I Should Have Said No but I didn’t want to be Mean. So It Goes… Anyway, I hope this doesn’t leave any Bad Blood between you and Maddie and that things for the rest of the year are not Treacherous,” it reads.
She concluded the email by writing, “I know I Did Something Bad and I promise this will be The Last Time she has an unexcused absence before the Cruel Summer starts.” She even signed her name with a Swift reference, writing “Forever & Always, – Karen Vladeck.” The note couldn’t have been any more perfect.
She Didn’t Hesitate to Send the Absence Note
Once the email was written, it didn’t take Karen Vladeck long before she sent it off to her daughter’s teacher – she didn’t even ask for her husband’s opinion, though he was copied in the email. After sending it off, she couldn’t help but hope the teacher was a Taylor Swift fan and would understand the references.
“I sent it without asking my husband, even though I copied him on it. When he saw it, he was like, ‘What are you thinking?’ But then the teacher wrote back immediately and she absolutely loved it,” she said to TODAY. The teacher’s response: “THIS MADE MY ENTIRE DAY” – and yes, the all-caps were necessary.
Vladeck was surprised at the teacher’s response, but even more surprised at the response she received on social media after sharing the photo. Despite a lot of hate and negativity swirling around the internet these days, she was relieved to see her post bring some positive light to a situation that needed it.
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As for the concert, Vladeck hopes it’s a moment her daughter remembers forever. “I do really hope in 20 years, she’s sitting around with her friends saying, ‘Oh, what was your first concert?’ and she says, ‘My mom took me to The Eras Tour when I was 7,'” she told TODAY. The concert is less than two weeks away!
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