Last night was our third, and final, back to school night for this school year. Really, back to school night is one(okay, three) of the most anticipated/dreaded nights on my calendar. It's the first parent-teacher interaction, and since it's a group event you get to case out all the parents of those kids your kid hangs out with too. It's a form of group bonding trying to cram ourselves into those chairs/desks meant for people 1/4 of our size.
In elementary, this may not seem like such a big deal. There's a lot of in and out of the building and all the involved parents more or less know each other, or at least know another parent that is associated with the parents of the child in question. In middle school, it starts getting muddier, but the network is still there. By high school, the kids are more "out there" on their own...and each group of parents has their own "club" Oh, and there are more hormones. It's here the dating game often starts to get played....and your resources are fewer. So off you trudge to back to school night, because at this stage of the game, as a parent, you would walk across hot coals for every scrap of information about your child's world you can get.
High school was our first back to school night, and our oldest is a freshman so it was the night of grand first impressions...or not. More like I ran late in the garden, so i didn't have time to shower before the stampede of children with backpacks and interactive homework and cooking dinner that had to be ready by 4:45 because somebody has practice at 5:30... so yeah, I was kind of grubby. Probably smelly too. Mr. Man was hoping to go play basketball directly after so he wasn't exactly dressed for success either...and he ditched me after second hour...to take above mentioned kid with practice home...but he never came back. Let's just say I loved seeing all my parent friends in my kid's classes, saw some new parents, but with everyone in such a rush didn't really get a chance to get to know anybody I didn't know already. I met all the teachers, probably got labeled as the crazy mom with a couple. I find it a miracle that it was only a couple. I especially loved his Biology teacher.
Moving forward to Monday night, the middle school. Oddly enough, this is my comfort zone. Except, as I looked around I realized what caused my son's initial social angst was true. My darling seventh grader only has TWO of his previous classmates in ANY of his classes...(at least whose parents come to these kinds of things.) He has made friends though, so a fresh slate was a good thing.
He is one of two seventh graders in his Algebra class. I totally love his Algebra teacher. She's very outgoing and human. (Most Algebra teachers are Vulcan.) He only has two teachers his brother had and both of them admitted that he is a totally different child. One teacher said "They don't look alike. They have totally different personalities. If I didn't have the name on the roster in front of me I would never have guessed those two are siblings. Fortunately, I also have two VERY different kids, so I get it." Here's hoping next year, when there are fewer teachers teaching honors courses, they'll get it too. Oh yes, and he has strings with my favorite third grade teacher's daughter. A sweet night indeed.
Moving forward to last night. I was hoping for a divide and conquer, since the elementary is nice enough to offer two sessions for each classroom. Our school is brilliant in providing staff supervised entertainment for the kids so both parents can attend. Due to sibling issues, I ended up going it alone.So I'm sorry lovely teachers for my divided attention during the sessions, but I was doing two kids paperwork in each one. I went to 2nd and 5th grade, because we just had 1st and 4th last year. It was reaaally hard not to go to first though, because it was a different teacher and I didn't really feel like I got the vibe of it last year. Not to mention Si Guy is my baby and has never left me for an entire day before. I still feel like a stranger in a strange land in the lower grades at this school, but if there is one thing I have learned from this parenting gig is if one is to err in attention, err on the side of the older and/or less demanding child. You'll still feel like they get shorted in the end anyway. I still only get a C though, because I forgot to sign up for first grade conferences. Here's praying she still has a slot Thursday morning before 10 or around 11:30.
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