to snigger inwardly about this mom's OTT behaviour?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Examples of this mom's jawdropping behaviour.

scoots alongside her DD as the line flows into school, so that she's with the child till the door prevents her going any further.

conspicuously checks that her DD's reading book has been changed, making sure that everyone else has seen which stage Mildred is on as she waves it around getting it out of the bag.

makes snidey comments regarding the child first out the door at hometime being the "teacher's favourite".

clean the school shoes every night and fresh uniform everyday.

peers in through the window at school making sure that Mildred's coat has been hung up correctly. Once she nipped round to the school secretary to mention that it had been knocked off the peg after Mildred had sat down at circle time for registration.

asks the child why she hasn't earned any stickers that day, and if she has earned stickers, being very loud and vocal in her praise of such a wonderful pupil.

Blimey, she's everso entertaining!

I watch the queue until dd is in the door, that's because she has been known to try and scarper. Her shoes are cleaned at least once a week but then she does have a tendency to jump in the mud. She has a completely clean pinafore at worst every second day and a clean blouse/polo shirt every day. On the days I don't give her a freshly laundered pinafore XH complains I have not met her basic hygiene needs.

megap, no my children don't have freshly washed uniform every day, but their uniform is clean.

fred, i think it's hard to convey what she's actually like here in the written word. All of the things she does are probably fine as individual items, although the school secretary one was way OTT! Also, most of the things she does, again, are completely acceptable if done with a different attitude. It's just the way she does it that is eye-rolly.

I think she cooked her goose with me when she said upon first meeting me - "Oh I've seen you around, you're the one who is having to deal with four ferals (her word), I don't know why you always look so calm with that chaos around you." - no my children have personality and aren't pampered princesses because life's too fecking short to indulge them in stuff that does not really matter.

I wished that I could have photographed her expression when I told her how slatternly I was, not washing their uniform if it didn't need washing.

Mildred isn't her PFB by the way, She has an older child who is very nervy and cautious. Mildred is the most laidback and endearing lttle thing around, which goes to show that all this concern for propriety isn't doing the child any harm.

maryz - you are righ in thinking some childen might get upset, in fact as I posted before, there are children who seem disappointed at the least that their mummy or daddy is not there waving. I know some work and dash off quickly but some are still in the playground chatting to their friends whilst their children are on tiptoes craning their necks through the window.
But unless the school changes the rules I will continue to wave to my dd.
I dont want my dd being made to be 'independent' any sooner than i feel necessary. And at the end f the day although i respect her school I would not be dictated to withou good reason and if I disagreed with a policy I would argue against it.

Oh dear, I sometimes stay outside and wave to my daughter if she's having a hard start that morning.

And I do praise my girls if they get a sticker, the sticker often says 'ask me why I got this sticker' or some such thing, but I do try to do this away from the school.

But I am a more showy type of parent who parents fairly loudly, I've accepted that the quieter more discreet types probably think I'm over-doing it, and now don't actually care that much.

cornetto, would you ask (conspicously) why your girls have failed to earn a sticker that day??

Chaos - she does sound like a pita! I don't advertise what book colour dd is on or gloat about her coming out with stickers. I am proud of her, but that can be conveyed to her alone in the car, not shouting about it in the playground!

StayingDavids, I agree with you, I don't wash my girls uniform on principle every day as it would be a waste of water unless it is dirty. It doens't smell (like my hubby's t-shirts do after a day), and I do a quick visual to make sure it's clean. One of mine is very clean and her uniform would last a week if I let it (but don't, give in to guilt about part way through), the other has a clean uniform almost every day as it is covered with dinner and paint, she is just a grubby little thing! Surely it is bad for the environment as well as a massive waste of time to be washing pretty clean clothes?

Chaos - she called your children 'four ferals' to your face?? I bet your jaw hit the floor. I bet it was one of those occasions where you are just too gob-smacked to think of a good retort until much later.

That's exactly it cornetto, why do something on principle, when all it does is stress you out with maintaining standards, and is detrimental to the enviroment?

Yes, I think she was trying for humour.

I think her aim was a little off!

At our school they play out in the yard til school starts.

The school is on a main road and only 4 cars fit on the roundabout at a time so you have to pull up, boot out and drive off hoping they've gone in the general direction of the building.

I walk my two (4 and just turned 6) as we're across the road and dd is usually long vanished by the time ds1 and I get to the gates. He ambles in perfectly happily and finds his friends and it never occurs to either of them to look behind them to see if I'm there.

Parents are told not to go into the yard or into the building, if we need to speak to the teacher we have to go round the building to the front door and ring the bell.

LOL at "four ferals". Jesus wept, the woman can barely cram her foot into her mouth quick enough.

I know someone (children all dressed in Boden and better quality designer items) who proudly refers to her children as "feral".
Whereas DC are merely "out of control".

I can see what you're saying Dropdeadfred but as it's not feasible for 30 parents to stand at the window blowing kisses you are probably leaving some of the children with the impression that their mummy doesn't love them as much. If they all knew that mummy said goodbye at the door they wouldn't be fussed.

My DS started in reception in September and from day one none of the parents went in. The TA stands at the open door and we all picked up that we were expected to say goodbye at the door. There haven't been any tears from any of them whereas a friend's daughter's class had all the parents going in for 15mins before class started. She says that as the parents started to leave the tears would start and soon the whole class would be upset. I do think there's something psychologically easier about doing the walking away making it easier for children to walk into the classroom without their parent.

Really to each their own...but I feel that hanging about to blow kisses through the classroom window is bordering on the bonkers.

Go home woman.

what a strange world we live in where parents are slagged off for giving their child clean clothes and shined shoes

Happyseven - I would hate to give that impression to any children BUT the parents who have to dash off to work alwys seem to do the big goodbyes and kisses etc before leaving...the ones who COULD wait around if they chose to are the parents of the children I see looking out of the window. The ones who's parents work or rush off to nuresery KNOW there is no chance that their parent is there and they don't even approach the window...it's the ones who only get a distant view of their mums chatting or walking away with a friend that I do feel a little about. But at present any child in DD's class could ask their parent to wait and wave...it's up to that parent if they do it or not.

Can't see what is wrong with putting a child in clean uniform and shoes everyday surely that is a must no matter what?

Pictish you are entitiled to your opinion of course. Could I ask you why you think that?
If I were to tell my dd that I would not be doing that tomorrow morning, and watch her litle face crumpling, what reason should I give her?
'Sorry DD it's bordering on bonkers...I'm just going to leave quickly and ignore your emotions because I want to leave quickly because...beacuse..oh there is no reason'

Aaargh.

There's nothing wrong with putting the DCs in clean uniform everyday, but that doesn't mean you have to wash it/polish shoes everyday as a matter of principle.

Surely this stuff can still be clean after a day at school sometimes?

I can barely manage to clean my own shoes ever daily, tell the truth.
I don't think it's any one or two parts of the OP's description that is cause for criticism, it's the obsessive theme of the whole picture that prompts a snigger.

Do you mean clean uniform, or freshly washed and ironed, clean uniform, Fabby? I didn't send the boys to school grubby, though I did have lower standards for 'clean' on a Friday than earlier on in the week, as I said, but with three of them there is no way I would have washed all their uniform every day - I couldn't face that amount of washing and ironing.

If I remember correctly, the boys used to have freshly washed uniform on a Monday, and sometime midweek - and more often if they came home dirty. On a Friday I might sponge/pick off stains so they didn't get a clean uniform that would go straight in the wash in the afternoon, but I didn't send them in filthy.

Now they are at senior school they probably have clean trousers Mondays and midweek, clean jumper/fleece weekly, and a clean shirt every day. I am so lucky that dh does most of the ironing, because the thought of 20 white shirts a week makes me faint with horror.

I have to confess that their shoes didn't get cleaned very often at all - there seemed no point when they were going to come home grubby the next day. Maybe it is different if you have girls?