The time for Moms and Dads
With Abe out of town until tomorrow morning, I've been doing a lot of dropping kids off and picking them up from school. Although I won't mind sharing this responsibility again when Abe gets back, picking the kids up from school is one of my favorite mundane tasks. I enjoy it for two main reasons.
1) I love seeing the kids at the end of the day and seeing how happy they look from a busy day at their respective wonderful schools. I love hearing about the highlights and the biggest accomplishments of the previous hours. Today Ella's teacher asked a question at circle time which Ella both understood and knew the answer to. She raised her hand, the teacher called on her, and she answered. A small thing, maybe, but in a language which was unknown 2 months ago, incredible. Today Jonah promised his teacher he wouldn't make a fuss when she tried to take off his shoes for nap time (the final boundary he has maintained to prove to the world that he is not quite at home when he is at daycare). Naptime came, he remembered his promise, took off his shoes, and went to sleep without so much as a whimper. Picking them up each day is like waiting at the finish line for a runner after a race. They always look tired, but so triumphant.
2) It is a moment of incredible cultural insight for me. Pick up time is an institution. They call it "the time for Moms" and more recently for Dads too (as a very large number of Dads are involved in drop off and pick up). All the parents wait outside the school door in a huge crowd waiting for it to be opened each afternoon. People find their friends, have chats. So far, we're just onlookers to that. Many of the parents have younger siblings in strollers.There's one Dad who comes on his motorcycle with his younger child (2 years old) riding along with him - helmet on his head, pacifier in his mouth. When we go inside, the little brothers and sisters are left in their strollers or on a bench in the lobby. I guess they are used to it, because they never seem to mind being left there while their parent goes upstairs to find the older kids. There are often notes on the chalkboard in the lobby for the parents or notes for us to take home (the minutes from the PTA meeting, information about Wednesday activities). In the few minutes it takes for me to pick up Ella each day, I learn more about French culture than in any other part of my day.
1) I love seeing the kids at the end of the day and seeing how happy they look from a busy day at their respective wonderful schools. I love hearing about the highlights and the biggest accomplishments of the previous hours. Today Ella's teacher asked a question at circle time which Ella both understood and knew the answer to. She raised her hand, the teacher called on her, and she answered. A small thing, maybe, but in a language which was unknown 2 months ago, incredible. Today Jonah promised his teacher he wouldn't make a fuss when she tried to take off his shoes for nap time (the final boundary he has maintained to prove to the world that he is not quite at home when he is at daycare). Naptime came, he remembered his promise, took off his shoes, and went to sleep without so much as a whimper. Picking them up each day is like waiting at the finish line for a runner after a race. They always look tired, but so triumphant.
2) It is a moment of incredible cultural insight for me. Pick up time is an institution. They call it "the time for Moms" and more recently for Dads too (as a very large number of Dads are involved in drop off and pick up). All the parents wait outside the school door in a huge crowd waiting for it to be opened each afternoon. People find their friends, have chats. So far, we're just onlookers to that. Many of the parents have younger siblings in strollers.There's one Dad who comes on his motorcycle with his younger child (2 years old) riding along with him - helmet on his head, pacifier in his mouth. When we go inside, the little brothers and sisters are left in their strollers or on a bench in the lobby. I guess they are used to it, because they never seem to mind being left there while their parent goes upstairs to find the older kids. There are often notes on the chalkboard in the lobby for the parents or notes for us to take home (the minutes from the PTA meeting, information about Wednesday activities). In the few minutes it takes for me to pick up Ella each day, I learn more about French culture than in any other part of my day.
posted by M-E Family at 9:20 PM
1 Comments:
I wonder what people visiting from another country would think about pick up time at American child care centers and schools? Most parents seem to dash in and out as quickly as possible, with little more than a nod to other parents!
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