This is Fin’s first year in K, as a result I am totally new to the ropes of the day to day culture of the elementary school politics. It is the same elementary school I went to, and I am amazed at the number of adults I recognize who also have children attending. It seems that even though I have said hello, the response I get is related to one of two things:
1) I have 2 heads (or their reaction would lead one to believe)
or
2) They remember who I am
Let’s just say I would never describe myself as ever being “popular”. I have found that the culture attached to school when you are a student carries over to when you become a parent. I find myself falling prey to it. The PTO at the school is pretty inventive in some of the things they do to raise money for the school. One of the things they do is sell pretzels at the back of the school as the classes let out for the day on Tuesday’s. It has somehow been twisted into this prestige thing.
Fin is so locked in on the routine that on Tuesday’s he MUST have one. I encourage it to some degree because he has to get in line all by himself with the other kids, get his dollar out and answer a question from a total stranger “Salted, or plain?”. Which for a child who’s social anxiety is so extreme that it is HUGE for him to do this. I mean {{HUGE}}. So, as much as my little ABA voice says “Baaad” because it is setting up a ritual, I think the benefit outweighs.
This has created my own anxiety about it because if I forget to give him a dollar in the morning of pretzle day (which is most weeks) it means I join the ranks of the Pretzle Posse.
What is that?
That is the group of mothers (like me) who forget to prepare their child with money, line up at the school entrance in expectation. The doors are always locked during regular school hours and opened at release time. BUT on pretzel day as soon as the PTO rep arrives, the doors are opened up for the early customers. Thus we are allowed to buy our pretzels before the onslaught of midgets pushing and shoving to get theirs before they are all gone.
Yes me, the against the grain, no trendy toy, notable for saying “If they jumped of fa bridge, would you follow?” to my children. I have been sucked into the Pretzel Posse.
For Shame
