I believe I use this blog to vent
sometimes. There is a strange sense of security that there is no one else
reading my blog except for my 2 friends – KPF and Smoggy J I can be a little petulant and they will be forgiving! However, a
part of me understands that once my words are released into “Cyber Space”…anyone
can see them and can think anything of me! This fact does not bother me. I want
my boys to realize that the freedom of expression invites friendly comments as
well as judgmental notes, and sometimes harsh tones! All sorts of feedback
should be welcome and there is always room for improvement.
Back to the topic at hand … there is some
venting coming your way!
Last Monday, June 24, 2013 was ASid’s Graduation
Day. There was a beautiful ceremony followed by a dinner and dance. If anyone
has been reading my blog, s/he would know that ASid just completed Grade 6 and
thereby his journey through Public School came to an end, and he is off to a
Junior High School. And such a fuss was made of this milestone – lots of
fundraising and lots of organizing with the money raised from the fundraising! There
were only 4 parents involved in these gargantuan tasks – 2 of us in fundraising
and 2 of them in spending the funds. 2 of us are coincidentally parents of boys
and the other 2 had girls graduating this year. The unnecessary battle of views
and words began when the 2 of us mentioned that we would be attending the
dinner/dance. The 2 of them looked at us like we were insane and how dared we
even thought of such an abomination?!
One of them brought up the oft repeated
phrase – rite of passage! Wow! The other said something like her daughter
wouldn’t want to see her there. Fair enough; however, I did not understand how
much the 2 of them tried to dissuade the 2 of us from attending the
dinner/dance. At one point in time, one of the 2 of us felt like there is
something wrong with us. If we had been in a movie, it would be “Mean Girls:
Grown Up!”. I mean, honestly, these kids are 11 and 12 years old; this is by no
means a High School Graduation?! I just decided to ask ASid how he felt about
having his mom attend his dinner/dance. I don’t remember the exact words. I
will try to capture it from memory …
“You should attend the dinner and dance,
Momley! You have worked so hard to raise all the funds and it would be great
for you to share the moment with us as we enjoy our dinner and dance.”
“Are you sure? You won’t be embarrassed to
have your Momley there?”
“What? Why? No! I am fine. Just don’t try
to show your love in front of my friends!”
Whatever that meant! And that was it! So,
the 2 of us attended the Graduation dinner/dance. Also present were the
Principal and 5 teachers. There were 56 kids. They didn’t care who was there.
