Tupperware

Daughter's preschool is fundraising, which is fair enough, they need to raise funds. I'm happy to support them, even if we don't particularly like them (Daughter does though, so she's not being neglected or anything) and would like to participate in fundraising activities.

Except - it's Tupperware.

Plastic containers that cost more than the same item made out of Sterling Silver. Stuff you get for under $10 from the supermarket or $2 Shop. Stuff that the kids magically manage to lose all of one particular half of that thing, like the lids - so you end up with 20 plastic boxes that are essentially useless because you can't cover them.

As much as I love the sight of neatly stacked and packed items, all colour co-ordinated, lined up in rows, shining from the shelf.. or prepping baking with ingredients in matching bowls.. or sending the kids off with their packed lunches in tidy compartment containers - I can't justify the cost. To get each child just one lunch box, there's only a few cents worth of change out of $100.

We budget, and $100 goes a long way... like, towards a month membership at the gym, or half way to a pair of boots, or a nice top, or a case of wine on special at Countdown. You know, important places..

Having said that, I'll be filling in my form as soon as I can find a pen around somewhere. It's for a good cause, not only does it go towards supporting the preschool - it also means I can send my daughter off in the morning with smug satisfaction that her lunchbox is as good as, if not better than, the child sitting next to her. And as much as I like to pretend it's not a competition, sometimes, it just is.

Ballet Moms

Yes, I live in NZ but there is something so encapsulating about the word "mom" especially when applied to categorizing different groups of Mothers.

At pre-school pick up yesterday I ran into a Ballet Mom. We'd trialled ballet for a term last year, but had decided it wasn't us. She proceeded to tell me about they were doing "such amazing things" now, how the little girls were dancing above their age level, and how the teacher is "so FAAAB u lous" (yes, fabulous is actually three separate words) which I replied to in the appropriate places with a bunch of "aww"s and "wow"s and "I bet"s. Just as my face started to ache from all the exuberant smiling and nodding the conversation came to a natural pause; Ballet Mom turns to me and says: "So, what does your daughter do, then?".

Ah. (Pause)

So here's the crucial point, I must answer with care. It's like the choice between the snakes and the volcanoes in the Pick a Path book "The Jungle of Peril", because we don't do any activies. So my options are:

a) lie "we've just signed her up for violin, Irish dance, tap and a hip hop class, they start next week"
b) extend the truth "we're just doing extension pre-school stuff at the moment, like maths and writing" (dividing up the last chip packet into thirds counts as maths, and drawing on the walls counts as writing, right?)
or
c) be creative "we're not doing traditional extension activities but we've signed her up for a weekly tour of the art gallery and she's SO into Picasso right now".

Of course, I could have just been honest: "Actually, we just go home and hang out. She's only 4..." But that's a move that could get us permanently removed from the birthday invite list, and I don't want my daughter to suffer from Mom Politics.

So I took option c and got creative "Well, I've just found about Zumba For Kids, and so I've got her name down for that, we're going together". I was quite satisfied with this, and so was Ballet Mom. At that point storytime finished and our kids were all released to go home.

Still, hopefully it won't last too long, by the time my daughter is 5 there won't be as many mothers like this to deal with... in our area there is a plethora of Decile 10 state primary schools with good reputations which none of the Real Ballet Mothers will be sending their children to... Not to the local school, with the local children, after all.