Holiday vs School

I know in many Northern Hemisphere countries families are preparing for back to school.

What surprises me is how many Moms are overjoyed at the prospect.

I love school holidays and I am almost as sad as my daughter is when they are over so this really baffles me. Perhaps it is because my youngest is a teen and she entertains herself mostly.  When my children were younger I was a single Mom and always working so I don't really know what school holidays with them would have been like.  

Why I love holidays:

• I get to sleep later
• I don't have to help with homework
• I don't get daily whining about how awful school is.
• There are no parent teacher meetings. 

 At my daughter's school it is rather like speed dating because the teachers sit at table in a circle in the school hall and you go from desk to desk choosing which teachers you are going to spend the 5 minutes with.

The worst is when you get to a teacher in whose class you know your daughter is doing badly.

Teacher:

"What is your daughter's name?"

Me squirming in my seat:

"Jessica ."

Teacher:

"Oh her!"

At this point I know it is going to be all downhill.

There is a teacher that teaches my daughter that I went to once since then I avoid him as if he were a Jehovah's witness on a Saturday.

He has dots.

He looks in his very neatly organised ledger and then he says in his very slow and boring voice:

"Jessica, she has 3 yellow dots, yellow dots are for being late in class, 10 red dots for being absent, 3 orange dots for late homework."

That one sentence took about half an hour because he speaks so slowly in such monotone, I nearly fell asleep.  I have no idea what he said after this but I think there were a lot more dots.

There was the one parents meeting when Jessica was doing really well in English.  Michael and I wanted a bit of upliftment so we decided to go see her.  To our surprise she said:

"Why are you here?  Jess is one of my top student, I am seeing parents whose children need help."

Michael and I were very amused even though she basically said "scoot", she said "one of her top students", so it was worth it.

Talking about top student, I am thrilled as Jess' history teacher just let me know that Jess is numero uno in history.