Not knowing where the
classroom is
Probably the most important thing about your child’s school
is knowing where you have to drop them off and pick them up every day, and if
you are super unorganized/ were too busy to go to the new class introduction
evening/ couldn’t really be bothered to go because there was something good on
the TV that night, then you may struggle to find the correct room to dispose of
your child for the day. If it is your first time visiting the school, you can
get away with going to reception and asking instead of looking like a wide-eyed
mummy gazelle hopping about to each classroom asking someone who looks like
they could be a teacher: ‘Is this Molly Stanley’s class?’
If it is not your first rodeo at the school but a new year,
so a new class, your child should know where they are going- so ask them! If
they don’t know, get them to pinpoint a friend and follow that child. If all
else fails, just pop your child in any classroom and run away. They will end up
in the right class when the teacher notices an extra child.
Not knowing the
teachers name
That episode on the telly that you watched instead of going
to the class introduction night is really going to haunt you now. You may have
found the classroom (unless you are still wondering around aimlessly), but
what-on-earth is their teachers name? Some staff, if you are lucky, will be
wearing name tags- but more often than not they would have swung around the
lanyard on their neck and all you can see is a blank white bit of card.
You could blag it and just say: ‘Sorry Mr Smith, I thought
that was the right classroom I dropped my child off at this morning, I didn’t
realise it was the kitchen and Molly would eat the teachers secret stash of
biscuits.’ Smith is a pretty general name, so it could be worth a go, otherwise
just say Sir or Miss. It’s what all the kids do anyway, so you are just down
with them.
Awkward hello’s with
other parents you don’t know
For some wild reason, because you are a parent, you are
supposed to communicate with other parents around you in the playground every
morning and afternoon. For most, a polite smile is enough acknowledgement that
you both have a child and they happen to be in the same classroom together. For
others....that is just not enough.
Some parents will engage you in conversation and mention
your child saying how your children are besties.
‘Molly and Lily-Sue are the greatest of friends. They are so
cute together, Lily-Sue talks about Molly all the time! So bless.’
You will politely nod along not having a clue who the heck
Lily-Sue is because your child has never said anything about her before and a
minute ago you did not even know Lily-Sue existed.
Getting to school on
time
When children come along, time keeping goes out of the
window- until it is time for school. The mornings do not work well for most
parents. There is the chaos of dragging the kids out of bed, getting their
uniform on, shovelling some toast down their throats, getting them changed
again as jam has appeared on their clothes, then the hunt for the
shoes/coat/bag begins, and parents are expected to be at school by a certain
time.
Yet, not quite at a certain time, because the gates shut a
whole FIVE minutes before that certain time , so you actually have to be early,
before the scheduled certain time and early does not work well for most of us.
Sometimes, I think it would be a whole lot easier to
home-school than have to put up with this, but then that would come with a
whole heap of other crap, so I will be back at those school gates in just over
a week, squeezing through the gate with 10 seconds to spare. Iwill throw my
child in a classroom and run out past all of the other parents.
If we run past each other, smile- we’re in this
together.
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