Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Oh the pain and humiliation…..




..... of having your mother work at your school LOL

'Twas a long hard road to these happy snaps, I assure you. I try not to have my oh-so-convenient job at the girls' primary school impact negatively on them, especially as they get older and more self-conscious (and I simultaneously become ever greater a potential source of mortification). Hasn't really been a problem until our recent Carnevale day (Italian celebration) held at school on the last day of term one. Teachers, aides, principal, even the office staff dress up along with the kids and as you can see there's a big parade. The teachers in the grade 3/4 area where I work decided to go as ballroom dancers (WTF?) and the look on Amy's face when she heard me complaining to Kate about it was just priceless. There was a whole double-take, I-can't-possibly-be-hearing-what-I'm-hearing-pick-my-jaw-up-off-the-floor routine going on accompanied by a wailing soundtrack of "Muuuuuuuum, you can't do it, you can't do it to me!" LOL In her defence, how many 10 yos do you know who'd want their daggy Mum turning up at school in spangles and lycra? It is a scary thought indeed, I could feel her pain and was really quite happy to abandon the group participation idea anyway ;)

Amy is shy dressing up outside our house, especially parading in front of the school anyway - she tends to prefer claytons costumes, the ones where if you didn't know she was dressing up, well you wouldn't know she was dressing up IYKWIM. So it's always a challenge to find come up with something that doesn't cause too much discomfiture and apparently now that extends to me too... My next costume brainwave was simple - dress up in Kate's school uniform (yes, just virtually slap me, showing off that I CAN fit into my Amazonian daughter's uniform, but let me reassure you, those long white knee high socks are a far better look on a leggy 12yo than a meatier-calved, short-arsed 40yo with childbearing hips LOL). Anyway, Kate loved styling me, braiding my hair with ribbons, piling on blazer and hat etc, it was hilarious, we were hysterical with laughter and Amy took one look and said without even a single giggle "you just can't, I won't even go to school that day". So if I was in any doubt, I now have conclusive confirmation that I've fully entered the embarrassment to my children phase of life. Kate was disappointed that her Frankenstein-worthy creation was not to be unveiled in public, but I promised I'd be a school girl in a couple of years once Amy has gone on to secondary school as Sophie couldn't give a hoot what I wear ;)

So finally, I look to what the girls are planning for their costumes for inspiration - Amy is Little Red Riding Hood which only involves her wearing some of her favourite clothes LOL (shout out to K8 who will recognise Red's hood which comes from the very cool Shoppe of Bronte) and a basket of goodies to share with her class (shout out to Kate F for my gorgy spotty Christmas pressie teatowel which covered her goodies). Sophie jumped on that fairytale bandwagon immediately as a convincing Big Bad Wolf, but when I tried to board the wagon as Grandma, the wheels came off, it went off the rails, Lil Red abandoned ship and any other cliche you can think of. Something like this:

"No, no, no - you can't wear your pyjamas to school in front of my friends. Why can't you just be Little Red Riding Hood's mother?"
"And what would I wear?"
"Mother clothes."
"So basically as you're Little Red Riding Hood, I would be dressing up as your mother, Which is - me."
"Exactly."
"You do realise that isn't a costume?"

Anyway, as the pics testify, we finally talked her found (one condition - no grandma wig LOL) and I had the comfiest costume of all on the day, pretty much just had to roll out of bed. But the big question is:

What do you think I should wear for Book Week??? LOL

PS Everyone else seems to have their act together and yummy Easter pics and posts up already, while I sit here surrounded by piles of washing and unpacked luggage from our beach Easter weekend, no food in the house (except chocolate of course), three kids underfoot on school holidays and a husband about to leave for Paris (yes Paris) without me, sob. So bear with me, will get there in the end. We had a fab time with perfect servings of friends, family, chocolate, champagne, beach and sleep - photos to follow

5 comments:

Georgie said...

Hmm porn star??? You seem to know WAY too many porno titles Grinder :P
Welcome back missed ya xxx

Sue J said...

Ok, where to start?? Yep, while ballroom dancer and schoolgirl are just wayyy too embarrassing, it'd have to be every 10yo's dream come true to have their Mum dress as a porn star - of course! :P

Secondly, with cross-blog-pollinating comments like this, you are going to completely confuse people. After all, this is not a porn blog, didn't you see I just posted about going to church??? :P :P

And lastly, now you can just sit back and wonder - does she have an addiction to tragic porn or merely a slightly more benign predilection for tragic puns? (insert obligatory ROFLMFAO)

Kate said...

Bronte and I were so happy to see the gorgeous Amy in what was B's favourite hooded coat!! Bronte also let out a little piggy squeal of delight when I read out the part about the very cool shoppe of Bronte! lol

As to the mortification of children - it just gets worse I believe!!!

lol

k8

Stomper Girl said...

Oh my god I just found you via Soozadoo and I just looked at your Carnevale photos, thought idly "that looks like our school" - lo and behold - I'm actually IN your photo. Taking a photo of my child.

How bizarre.

Sue J said...

OH, this IS bizarre, had only admired your hardcore self-portrait so far (and no I didn't see any pink bits LOL) and now I've spent half the afternoon recognising backgrounds, school events, kinder, concert and colleagues throughout your gorgeous blog! Am going to have to email you...

K8, so glad you and Bronte got to see yet again how much Amy adores your daughter's fab sense of style :) Let me know next time the Shoppe of Bronte is having a clear-out ;)