"Afspreken" in specialeducationland
Here I am back posting after a long while. What can I tell you, I have been busy and as every good staying at home mom, for the life of me I would not be able to tell you with what I have been busy. Anyway things are still happening in my life which are worth blogging about. Today I want to stand still on one of the most crucial activities of staying at home moms, taking care of their children play dates.
Arranging a playdate is expressed in dutch with one single symbolic word: "afspreken". When Nora was attending her former school "afspreken" was a tricky business from the social point of view but quite trivial from the practical side.Children would come out of school and agree with each other who was going to play with whom. In specialeducationland "afspreken" takes a whole different meaning but of course Nora could not be aware of that so she happily arranged to invite her new best friend to our place. I was of course happy that she is easily making friends so I proceeded in making all the necessary arrangements for the play date to take place.
What you need to know is that in specialeducationland play dates are not very common, especially in the lower classes, so by the time that the arrangements were made even the school director was aware of the fact that this play date was taking place. This put quite some pressure on yours truly!
Parents of disabled children are also generally quite protective and apprehensive about their little ones, and indeed I could see that the father of Nora's friend was looking a little bit unconfortable when he pushed his son's wheelchair into our living room. When he left I comforted him assuring that everything was going to be ok, he had no reason to doubt me and our living conditions were anyway quite convincing.
After a game of "Ganzenbord", also known as Candyland, I suggested we go feed the ducks at the nearby pond. My proposal was a success so we rushed out of the door with some stale bread. All caught into manouvering Oliver's pram, and Nora's friend in his wheelchair I closed then door and after a split second I realized that I had left the keys on the livingroom table. This is one of those moment in which you see your life at a slow motion before your eyes while your brain cells work at maximum speed. There was only one solution possible to avoid panic and shame,....call Dennis to the rescue. Fortunately it was already 16:15 so he could already leave his office and be home before 17:00 (time at which Nora's friend would be picked up). Having resolved the crisis we happily strolled to the pond, fed the ducks and went back home.
We were a bit late so we rushed back in because the children had also been promised some candies before breaking the party. Inside Dennis was of course spilling the beans about my clumsiness (I had forgotten to forbid him to do that when I had called him, fatal mistake).
We dealt candies, made a short recap of the day, laughed and chatted for a few minutes till it was time to move to the door to wave the guests goodbye. All the crowd stepped out of the door and guess who was there on the curb waiting patiently?.....Oliver in his pram. We had forgotten him outside!
I am sure you can guess that the next play date took place at the boy's house!
Arranging a playdate is expressed in dutch with one single symbolic word: "afspreken". When Nora was attending her former school "afspreken" was a tricky business from the social point of view but quite trivial from the practical side.Children would come out of school and agree with each other who was going to play with whom. In specialeducationland "afspreken" takes a whole different meaning but of course Nora could not be aware of that so she happily arranged to invite her new best friend to our place. I was of course happy that she is easily making friends so I proceeded in making all the necessary arrangements for the play date to take place.
What you need to know is that in specialeducationland play dates are not very common, especially in the lower classes, so by the time that the arrangements were made even the school director was aware of the fact that this play date was taking place. This put quite some pressure on yours truly!
Parents of disabled children are also generally quite protective and apprehensive about their little ones, and indeed I could see that the father of Nora's friend was looking a little bit unconfortable when he pushed his son's wheelchair into our living room. When he left I comforted him assuring that everything was going to be ok, he had no reason to doubt me and our living conditions were anyway quite convincing.
After a game of "Ganzenbord", also known as Candyland, I suggested we go feed the ducks at the nearby pond. My proposal was a success so we rushed out of the door with some stale bread. All caught into manouvering Oliver's pram, and Nora's friend in his wheelchair I closed then door and after a split second I realized that I had left the keys on the livingroom table. This is one of those moment in which you see your life at a slow motion before your eyes while your brain cells work at maximum speed. There was only one solution possible to avoid panic and shame,....call Dennis to the rescue. Fortunately it was already 16:15 so he could already leave his office and be home before 17:00 (time at which Nora's friend would be picked up). Having resolved the crisis we happily strolled to the pond, fed the ducks and went back home.
We were a bit late so we rushed back in because the children had also been promised some candies before breaking the party. Inside Dennis was of course spilling the beans about my clumsiness (I had forgotten to forbid him to do that when I had called him, fatal mistake).
We dealt candies, made a short recap of the day, laughed and chatted for a few minutes till it was time to move to the door to wave the guests goodbye. All the crowd stepped out of the door and guess who was there on the curb waiting patiently?.....Oliver in his pram. We had forgotten him outside!
I am sure you can guess that the next play date took place at the boy's house!
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