Another schoolyard another game
Nora is settling in at the new school, and she definitely seems to be settling in faster than I am. Due to my maternity leave I have been involved in her introduction to the new school much more than I was ever involved in her introduction to the old school, which was handled mostly by the nanny.
Since there are only maximum ten children in each class and most of the children are brought and picked up by taxi busses there are very few parents both in the morning and in the afternoon.
Since day one I am expremely popular, all kind of unknown people come to me to introduce themselves, when I leave Nora to her class I see walking around more teachers/assistents/therapists m than I see children. I am not sure whether this is a good or a bad sign. All the staff makes the most for the parents to feel comfortable since they know that at the beginning the parents need more support than the children themselves.
The first glance around does not show such a pretty sight, of all the children that are in Nora's class half are in a wheelchair and the rest walks with a walker, only Nora and one other child do not need any device to walk.
In as little as three days I am already in speaking terms with all the parents in Nora's class (at least the once that come), maybe it is due to the fact that they are all men. This might sound strange to you, how comes that there are no mothers around? One would think (and correctly) that the schoolyard is mother's domain. Well the explanation is very simple, wheelchairs (as well as children that can't walk) are very heavy!
The father's league is very talkative. The first chats are of course very medical, we exchange hospital names as well as not always intellegible tests, therapies and syndromes names. We nod to each other in understanding fashion, in specialeducationland people tend to understand each other without too many words. Soon the conversation moves to other topics as well.
I feel on a different timeline, in a parallel universe, a universe which is in many aspects the same as where I am coming from but yet substantially different. One example for all, one day I listen in to a conversation between two fathers, I am sure they are talking about cars (nothing strange about that), but when I listen a bit more carefully I realize that they are talking about wheelchairs! Men will be men even in specialeducationland.
All in all after a couple of weeks I have got used and I am sure before the end of the school year I will be the undisputed queen bee of the schoolyard. What do you know, not only Nora needed a new environment to suceed,....but me too!
Since there are only maximum ten children in each class and most of the children are brought and picked up by taxi busses there are very few parents both in the morning and in the afternoon.
Since day one I am expremely popular, all kind of unknown people come to me to introduce themselves, when I leave Nora to her class I see walking around more teachers/assistents/therapists m than I see children. I am not sure whether this is a good or a bad sign. All the staff makes the most for the parents to feel comfortable since they know that at the beginning the parents need more support than the children themselves.
The first glance around does not show such a pretty sight, of all the children that are in Nora's class half are in a wheelchair and the rest walks with a walker, only Nora and one other child do not need any device to walk.
In as little as three days I am already in speaking terms with all the parents in Nora's class (at least the once that come), maybe it is due to the fact that they are all men. This might sound strange to you, how comes that there are no mothers around? One would think (and correctly) that the schoolyard is mother's domain. Well the explanation is very simple, wheelchairs (as well as children that can't walk) are very heavy!
The father's league is very talkative. The first chats are of course very medical, we exchange hospital names as well as not always intellegible tests, therapies and syndromes names. We nod to each other in understanding fashion, in specialeducationland people tend to understand each other without too many words. Soon the conversation moves to other topics as well.
I feel on a different timeline, in a parallel universe, a universe which is in many aspects the same as where I am coming from but yet substantially different. One example for all, one day I listen in to a conversation between two fathers, I am sure they are talking about cars (nothing strange about that), but when I listen a bit more carefully I realize that they are talking about wheelchairs! Men will be men even in specialeducationland.
All in all after a couple of weeks I have got used and I am sure before the end of the school year I will be the undisputed queen bee of the schoolyard. What do you know, not only Nora needed a new environment to suceed,....but me too!
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