Class Parent Coffee

September 24, 2010

I am one of three class parents for Alice's first grade class. At this school, the class parents host coffees, often at their homes with homemade baked goods. Or, you can do it the easy way, like I did, and meet at Starbucks, at a local mall. We weren't sure how many parents would show up. In fact, at one point, it seemed like it might be just us class moms and one other mom, but we were so happy when one after another mom came, for a total of 9 of us.

If you look at the picture above, you'll see there are families from all over the world. In fact, I think there may be some sort of quota this international school tries to meet, like no more than 10% Thai, 10% European, etc. I heard there's been a quiet uproar lately among upper school parents since Koreans are almost 20% in the upper school.

If you start at the left above, the first mom is Vietnamese, the next German (with Columbian husband), Venezuelan, me, Divya from Goa in India, Lebanese-American, American, British, and Indian. Their husbands are working and they are not working themselves, for the most part. It seems hard to get a job in this and some other countries, as the spouse of the work visa-holder. And, it often doesn't seem worth it if you're just going to be posted in another country in a couple years. One mom is an electrical engineer from Venezuela but hasn't worked since she left Venezuela 6 years ago. Sometimes, the Moms seem to feel like their wings have been clipped. At the same time, they love the travel and luxurious lifestyle with lots of cheap nannies/housekeepers here. It's hard to go back to washing dishes after dinner, if you return to settle back down in the US.

We all appreciate Alice's teacher so much. I gush over that teacher. She's so warm clear, great activities, and has handled some recent girl-girl verbal aggression with directness and an empowering approach. Yesterday, Alice actually thought some girls were whispering about her at recess. She ran to tattle to the teachers (having become an expert tattler after 6 long years of practice) and fell down off a play structure on the way. She hit the ground hard, with mild abrasions all over her body, requiring a dramatic visit to the nurse. When the nurse called me, I found myself telling her, "Well that will teach her to tattle." The nurse didn't seem amused.