…that our children don’t tell us anything. I’ll just repeat that, for the benefit of those at the back of the class: OUR CHILDREN DO NOT TELL US ANYTHING THAT GOES ON AT SCHOOL.
This may of course be a gross generalisation and in fact applicable only to my older son and to no other child in the known universe. Or it may be generally true. There are exceptions, I admit. At 5 years you’ll get a blow by blow account of every minute of the day. At 8 years, the enthusiasm may well still be there even if the account is less detailed. In S1 the novelty prompts a whole new spurt of enthusiastic chatter, at least for a month or so. But by the time the teen years are reached, school is definitely personal time and it’s no business of parents to know what goes on in their childrens’ private lives, is it? There are a number of code words for this, ‘boring’ and ‘nothing’ being the most familiar as in the following daily conversation:-
Q “So how was school today?”
A “Boring”
Q “What did you do today? Anything interesting?”
A “Nothing. No.”
Q “Any letters for me?”
A “Dunno.”
The days when my children lay spreadeagled on the ground pretending to be an aeroplane, to show me what they did in reading, are long since past, I’m afraid. Sigh. I felt quite nostalgic when I read Mumble’s post.
But back to the point. OUR MY CHILDREN TELL US ME NOTHING THAT GOES ON AT SCHOOL. Or nothing important, that is. So if YOU have something important that you feel we should know, please send a letter home. I’m sure I’m not the only parent who still excavates deep into the school bags in the hope of some communication. And you could always try reinvigorating the school website. It is no good telling me, too late, “Your son has had this information since the beginning of term”. If I don’t know he has information to impart, I can’t ask him about it. And he’s not going to volunteer anything unprompted.
Are daughters the same, I wonder? Or do they tell their mums everything that’s going on at school? I’ll never know!
Agree totally! The following, yesterday.
Q: have you got any homework today?
A (S3 boy): Might. No. Yes.
Q:What is it?
A:Exercise 1.4
Q: What is that?
A:Chemistry.
Q: what in chemistry?
A: You wouldn’t understand.
Gross insult! (though probably has a point).
Absolutely spot on with the telepathy one too.
GPM girls are exactly the same and when she comes inn to find me routing round her bag to find any said note I get “£stop going through my stuff can’t I get any privacy!”. I will get the odd oh this was quite good or i don’t like that teacher, but in general my daughter does not tell me anything either and she is S1
Mumble, perhaps you should try being a bit more underhand and have a quick skim through Section 2 while he’s not looking. Then you can impress him with an intelligent question and your in depth knowledge.
SFR – it is reassuring, in an odd sort of way, to find that girls are the same. But so soon into S1! It’s not even the September weekend yet! Perhaps this is a reflection of their greater maturity and by the time she’s in S4, she’ll be telling you everything.