The Maternelle

So I was having a conversation with my mom this afternoon and she asked me if I wondered what the teachers and staff at the Ecole Maternelle de Elise think about me. We both work in schools and of course have fabulous stories to share about the crazy parents we work with, so it was an interesting point brought up by my mother that inspired me to write a new blog entry. Here we go...

First, a little background. It is a huge faux pas to were your exercise gear in public. For example, many of the soccer ladies will take the metro to soccer practice on Sundays and wear their normal clothes, jeans, pants, nice tops. Once they reach the field, the change into their shorts and T-shirts and once it's over, will change back. You cannot seriously expect to ride the metro in your T-shirt and exercise shorts! How embarrassing! The best part of it all is you can be stinky and sweaty in jeans and a nice top and acceptable, but totally unacceptable in T-shirt and shorts smelling like roses! Ah, Paris! :)

Now that you have the background, you will appreciate that my school day ritual has been to walk Elise to school and then go for a run before heading back home to Celia and Brian. Thus, I show up to school with my daughter in my exercise gear and iPod. I'm sure they are very impressed with me! What am I thinking? Exercise pants and shirt! I can't be serious!

But it gets better...on the 5th of November, the kids returned to school after the Toussaint Holiday Break. Now, if you remember correctly, Elise had an extra week of school off because her class was canceled due to her teachers' illness. Thus, we did not receive any announcements before heading off on holiday. The one big announcement we missed was that there would be a school wide puppet show the morning of November 5 in which each student must contribute 4 Euros to participate. Even though Elise didn't pay her 4 Euros, she still got to watch, however I was told to bring in the Euros as soon as possible. So, I went on my run, collected all the change in the house to make 4 Euros (1, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent denominations....a HUGE envelope of change! ;) and returned to pick up Elise with payment in full!

The next day my envelope was sitting on the teachers desk and returned to me during the drop off. They will only accept 1 and 2 Euro coins for the payment. In other words, take your inappropriate workout outfit and trashy envelope of change, and come back when you can be more presentable!

I'm proud to say that I'm one of those crazy parents that I used to spend hours complaining about and making fun of with my colleagues. It feels great to be on the other side! :)