Today, when picking up Raphaela from school, I could barely get in the door of the building, it was stuffed corner to corner with strollers. As I went up the stairs, I could hear masses of adults flooding the classroom next to my daughter's, with all the children dressed to the nines and holding large bouquets of flowers.
I clarified, after asking several parents, that the Pre 1A class were celebrating Grandparents Day. They had invited the entire family to attend this "fancy" nursery event: parents, grandparents, and siblings of all ages, culminating in the presentation of flowers by the grandchild to the respective grandmother and/or grandfather.
The idea is beautiful, yes, but it immediately put me in a panic, thinking, "Next year Raphaela will most likely be in this class with this teacher, and when it comes to Grandparents Day she will have no one. Not grandparents and not a father and not a little brother or sister. Just a Mom who loves her beyond all imagining."
It made me sad. I know that if my Uncle Bitzi were alive, he would have come to represent. And it put me in a mood to start thinking about and planning for a year from now; do I invite my parents if I can give them enough notice, assuming they can travel from Boston at that time? Do I recruit family friends to appear as surrogate grandparents?
How do I approach this topic with the teacher, without singling out Raphaela unnecessarily?
3 comments:
I'm trying to think of a good answer for you but in the end I conclude that the best course of action might be a yom kef with ima somewhere else. Another single mum friend of mine did this on Family Day this year - she sensed that the way it was being celebrated in her son's kita aleph class was something they wanted to avoid.
Three of my daughter's 4 grandparents are dead. and the fourth one lives overseas. Surely this can't be an unusual situation (most of my friends' children are in the same situation). It seems like you should be able to talk to the principal about whether it is really a good idea. parent days are problematic enough, but grandparent days?
tell your parents about it to see if they can visit israel then. otherwise do a yom keif.
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