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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think you'd have to be totally miserable to complain about this teacher?

44 replies

SantanaLopez · 06/12/2013 18:05

My SIL is 5 and in P1. On Monday Santa phoned her teacher (the ringtone was Jingle Bells!) and they had a little chat about looking forward to Christmas and being good etc

SIL was over the moon, and has not stopped talking about since

Some of the parents have complained it was inappropriate and there's a big stooshie about the whole thing now. I think they're mad.

OP posts:

CloverkissSparklecheeks · 06/12/2013 18:06

Why was it inappropriate? How ridiculous!

Our local secondary school banned the children from talking about xmas and putting up any decs in case they offended children who didn't celebrate it!!!

Floggingmolly · 06/12/2013 18:09

What exactly are they complaining about? Are they those miserable bastards who explode the Santa myth because they sanctimoniously refuse to "lie" to their children?

bundaberg · 06/12/2013 18:09

i have to admit, I do really hate it when other people do the whole "oh, you HAVE to be good" thing coming up to christmas partly because I don't tell my children that myself, and they WILL get presents even if they're particularly bad I suspect!

so, that might annoy me if i thought enough about it. woudl I complain? of course not!

BuzzardBird · 06/12/2013 18:10

Your SIL is 5?

bundaberg · 06/12/2013 18:12

actually, I don't "really hate" it... but it annoys me a lot

Original poster

SantanaLopez · 06/12/2013 18:14

Having a phone in class was one thing brought up, and then 'getting too involved in private lives'

Buzzard- She was adopted by MIL.

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 06/12/2013 18:15

Unless you don't believe in Father Christmas, and then it's just like Peppa Pig or someone phoning.

I now get why some might not like being good to be linked with getting presents, as DD is being rather naughty atm we're talking an 8 year old eating her 15 year old brothers advent calender chocolates here so purely naughty and not reacting to anything), but of course she'll still get a stocking and presents from me. (Or maybe it's becuase she no longer beleives the elves are wathing!)

DoctorDonnaNoble · 06/12/2013 18:16

My multi-cultural Year 11 form are thrilled with the prospect of making snowflakes to decorate the form room. They love it!

FredFredGeorge · 06/12/2013 18:16

The good thing is very annoying like Bundaberg, but that's still not a reason to complain about it!

Mrswellyboot · 06/12/2013 18:19

The world has gone mad!
Why can't there be a little bit of magic? I am five and I love santa

Mrswellyboot · 06/12/2013 18:19

Not five

Lilacroses · 06/12/2013 18:22

What pathetic people. How mean spirited to complain about something like that.

scarlettsmummy2 · 06/12/2013 18:24

They must have little going on in their lives.

LizzieVereker · 06/12/2013 18:29

Oh how ridiculous. What a nice creative thing for the teacher to do. And I doubt if she said "oh, what's that Santa, the children must be very good or they won't get ANY presents."

Unless the school has already agreed to "banning" Christmas for whatever reason, the parents are being really churlish IMO. My very multi faith, multi cultural students would have enjoyed this, and why not?

Original poster

SantanaLopez · 06/12/2013 18:33

I am also not 5 and think it's wonderful idea

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 06/12/2013 18:55

DS1 wrote letters to a pig once, when he was 5. He was bemused a pig could read.

DS2's teacher once called a nun during an RE lesson.

"Random travellers" once set up camp outside DS1's Y5 classroom. They left a tent and some clues as to what they were up to. (They had hired a car in France apparently, and seemed to have no plas to return it....I had to find a car hire company who would return a car to another country to prove to DS is was possible )

Santa phoning acutally seems quite reasonable.

yoshipoppet · 06/12/2013 19:02

There's a Marine base near our school, and at the end of the autumn term they provide a helicopter and fly Santa all round the village :) He waves at all the children, they wave back. I also wave back if I am outside. I love things like this.
I am also not five.

cloggal · 06/12/2013 19:05

It sounds lovely Santana. I hope your SIL enjoyed it :)

hiddenhome · 06/12/2013 19:21

You see, this is why I'm so glad that the dcs go to Catholic schools. None of this ridiculous political correctness and bah humbug.

IorekByrnisonsArmour · 06/12/2013 19:21

Maybe the parents would prefer what happened in a local primary school.

A local vicar did a Christmas assembly and told the children that Father Christmas didn't exist That St.Nick found 3 children hung outside a shop and asked God to give them back life. God did.

I know which story I would prefer my DC to be told

Keep the magic alive people, you're old for a long time

SilverApples · 06/12/2013 19:22

Poor teacher, trying to inject a bit of mystery and festive excitement into her classroom.
I wonder if she'll bother next time.

Acinonyx · 06/12/2013 19:22

Why stop there - how about a phone call from God telling them to be good?

nooka · 06/12/2013 19:33

I would have found it quite irritating if this had happened at my children's school when they were small. We celebrate Christmas without Santa (just not a part of my family's traditions - I'm not a 'miserable bastard' thank you very much) and I would have found it a bit of an imposition of the teacher's ideas/values on mine, so I guess I do think it could have thought of it as in some way getting involved in my family's personal life.

I doubt I'd have complained to anyone other than dh mind, depending on what the 'Santa message' actually was, and which of my children heard it (ds would have been uninterested, but dd at that age believed everything the teacher told her so it would have made a big impact on her). I would have been very pissed off if dd had got very excited and non stop talked about Santa stuff.

To me Christmas presents are a way that families show their love for each other, nothing to do with being good, and nothing to do with a Santa myth that some people think is really important, but I don't. I used to hate the way that other people used to push Santa stuff on my children, it felt very intrusive and a bit weird. Fine for them to have their traditions without messing with mine.

Pollydingdonmerrilyonhigh · 06/12/2013 19:36

SilverApples · 06/12/2013 19:38

So, are we advocating that school treats Christmas in the same way as Eid, Chanukah and Wesak? Brief mention and then back to the real curriculum?
How do you protect children from the contamination presented by Santa in shopping malls and society in general at this time of year?

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