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AIBU?

Just had to collect distraught DD from sleepover

137 replies

DiDonk · 28/08/2018 20:00

DD (who is 7) was due to be spending two nights having a sleepover with her best friend, but when I spoke to her this evening she sounded unhappy and said that she wanted to come home. So I went and got her. Best friend's mum was being a bit odd when I got there, listing all the fun things they had done and saying that dd was very tired.

When I got dd back into the car she told me that the mum had made them do spelling tests and maths questions and told her that she was stupid when she made mistakes. So as not to drip feed, although I don't think it is relevant, the spelling tests were in dd's second language - the language they use half the time at school.

But whatever the language, AIBU to think that this is an appalling way to treat a visiting child? I've had to fob the mum off before when she has asked about dd's school reports, but this is much, much worse. D is really upset and thinks she is stupid and I'm not sure whether to say something?

I've been slightly wary of this mum for a while as she seems to enter into the kids' friendships in a rather overbearing way, and I could imagine her deliberately trying to make things difficult for dd if she took against her. But ffs.

OP posts:
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Makemineboozefree · 31/08/2018 08:55

Did you go ahead with the playdate, OP?

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Wineandchoc · 30/08/2018 11:13

Your daughter chose to leave an unpleasant situation, good for her! I can't imagine any long term harm has been done and in future she won't want to go to this friends house.
I wouldn't bother saying anything.
My SIL is a teacher and annoyingly used to try to test my 5 year old on family occasions "how many peas are on your plate? How many would be left if you eat 5?" Etc. He now avoids sitting close to her if possible. No big scene needed.

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ralfeesmum · 30/08/2018 10:47

This weirdy woman sounds very much like SchoolGateZilla Control-Freak Mom! Does your child go to the same school as her Uber-Perfect sprog/s?

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Biologifemini · 30/08/2018 07:11

Why on earth did you let your child go on a sleepover with someone you were weary about.
Don’t put your child in this situation in future.
The other mother shouldn’t have called her stupid but if she was doing the tests with her child anyway she wasn’t being unreasonable from that point of view.
Screen other kids parents and go with your gut in future.

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Lizzie48 · 30/08/2018 07:05

I have spent a lot of time in France. I spent my third year at uni there and one of my closest friends is married to a Frenchman and has lived in France with him and their 4 DC for 25 years.

I don't think they do spelling tests, but she's English so I guess that explains it. I have noticed that her DH has always spoken very harshly to the DC, and so does she. I haven't heard them say 'Tu es nulle' to any of them, but it is a common expression in French. And I definitely agree that French people are more direct, and come across as being very rude sometimes.

I definitely wouldn't send your DD there for a sleepover again. Who would ever do tests on a sleepover anyway? I wouldn't want to do that, sleepovers are challenging enough without giving myself extra work! Grin

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TeachesOfPeaches · 30/08/2018 07:00

This explains something I've been wondering about. The best quantitative analysts are usually French (or Chinese) and I didn't know why. From this thread it seems like Maths is a big part of their home and school life and then they go on to study things like statistical modelling. Makes perfect sense now.

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BogstandardBelle · 30/08/2018 06:39

I knew you were going to say France!

It’s quite normal here for kids to do a little schoolwork every day through the holidays. They have 8 weeks off, the newsagents have lots of “fun” summer workbooks which review what they’ve learned all year, and ones that focus on math / French.

And it’s no excuse but French people can be fairly ... direct? I work with a mixed group of French / Brits / Americans, and we do have difficult situations where our French colleagues talk in a very forthright / rude manner, which offends the Brits as they prefer to keep things polite / passive aggressive ;-) cultural stereotypes maybe, but they do exist.

And I’d say this directness extends to parenting. Many French parents that I know speak very sharply to their children, far more than I grew up with. They can be mean (to British ears).

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jellybum · 30/08/2018 05:59

From your first post I knew this was in France. I spent a couple of very long summer holidays with French families when I was 13/14 and the children of the families had to do "work" for 30 mins to an hour a day, and that was many many years ago. I now live in France and I see the same thing with quite a few of the friends of my children, particularly primary school age.

One of my DC, aged 9 at the time, came back from a sleepover horrified at being made to do an hour and a half of tests, spelling etc and vowed not to sleepover there again. The parents were lovely and kind but very fussy and "competitive". My DS remained friends with their DS until their DS was bumped up a class (they've only just stopped moving kids up and down classes recently!) and then moved to another school, but never did a sleepover again at his. Their son had fantastic results in all tests but only because he learned by rote, which is fine if you have a good memory.

As for the mum telling your DD that she was "nulle" - that's just downright nasty. But unfortunately each of my 3 DC has been told at one time or another that they are "nul" (by teachers in a "good" school) and my close French friends said it is horrible and rude but "that's the way it is"!!! My youngest DS was asked mockingly, in front of the class, by his maths teacher if he was "dyslexic" as his writing was not great!!! He's left-handed Hmm and good at maths. Sorry, I digress.

Maybe stick to play dates at your convenience and avoid sleepovers until your DD makes other friends. There are plenty of lovely French families who don't "test" their DC and friends at home.

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flumpybear · 30/08/2018 02:36

I also think the mum was trying to see how her DD and your DD compared to each other - which in itself is awful let alone the telling off comments Shock

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thebewilderness · 30/08/2018 01:42

Seven is a little early to have to talk to our daughters about abusive behavior in adults and children that she meets but these are the teaching moments that mean the most.
I am so sorry she was treated badly by her friends mum.

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bloated1977 · 30/08/2018 01:12

This thread has made it to the Daily Mirror!

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nearlythesummer · 29/08/2018 23:06

I expect she is a very insecure mum & thought it was ok to compare her daughter work to yours by doing tests. At a school I know, parents often compare other children’s school reports etc. She was, of course, out of order doing that to your daughter.

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NotNachoing · 29/08/2018 21:48

Just to add both my children have French teachers who are really lovely. It's not all French teachers! More that it's part of a dying breed of teacher!

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BabySharkDooDooDooDoo · 29/08/2018 21:46

Thats a disgusting way to treat a visiting child. Wtf is she playing at making them do spelling tests et al?! A sleepover is meant to be fun things like watching films with sweets and popcorn and such like

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Lilyfleur · 29/08/2018 21:30

Also, the French can be very chauvinistic about their language. When I lived there I remember the (British) father of a child in the French school system being called into school and quizzed as to whether he spoke to his child in French. Father very proudly admitted he did, at which point he was told by the school in no uncertain terms that he was to desist from this in future as his 'bad' French was 'corrupting' his daughter's French. It's a strange mind-set!

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WyfOfBathe · 29/08/2018 21:25

I also assumed France. I lived there from age 11 to mid 20s (in the monolingual French system). It is a high-pressure system, and holiday work is the norm, but I still don't think testing other people's children is appropriate. I did have one teacher who repeatedly called me "nulle" but she was a particularly awful teacher, and I don't think most French teachers are verbally abusive.

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Lilyfleur · 29/08/2018 21:15

Angelil

My first thought was that this was in France too.

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Lilyfleur · 29/08/2018 21:12

Next door neighbour did this to my younger sister when we were growing up.

Also, when DS was in junior school his best friend's parents were super-competitive high achievers (friend was nice 'average' kid). Friend's father used regularly arrive at school early, go into classroom and do maths problems on board and get random kids to work out problems (obviously to see how his kid compared to others).

Another set of pushy parents at DS's school invited DS and two others around and gave them maths tests to 'prepare for school exams' . Didn't find out this was happening until pushy parent started boasting to me about how her DS was doing better on the maths tests than the other (unknowing guinea-pigs) in the 'friendship' group. Same parent's got their kid privately diagnosed (nothing wrong with him) and got a psychiatrist to prescribe a stimulant/enhancer type drug to take for exams.


It's unbelievable how competitive some parents are!

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Walkingthedog46 · 29/08/2018 20:59

When I was a kid there were lots of children in the street. When we used to play at the house of one particular child the father got us to do test papers in English and Maths just so that he could gauge how his child did in comparison!!!!!

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gordan · 29/08/2018 20:34

Yes I agree. Let your daughter know that you are standing up for her. This woman used to make me feel so silly when I used to do this class with her. She picked on me and bullied me. I wish I’d said something to my mum and I wish I’d confronted that woman. It still affects me years later.

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NotNachoing · 29/08/2018 20:15

@Mummyoflittledragon well my point is I'm not sure if it is now, things are improving, but in that aspect France is a little slower to change than les anglo-saxons ;)

It most definitely was though! (Francophone family too).

It's part of the traditional "anything less than perfect doesn't count" attitude, which is also slowly changing.

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Angelil · 29/08/2018 20:12

Read page 1, thought "bet this is in France" (lived there for 9 years and husband is French so know the culture well), skip to page 5 (last page of the thread at the time of writing) and...lo and behold.
What can I say? Definitely no more sleepovers at this kid's place. Mum sounds nuts even by French standards TBF.

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Smudge100 · 29/08/2018 19:51

All the posters here automatically assume DD is telling the truth. Sorry but all children sometimes lie or embroider the truth. I wouldn‘t ring and berate the patent as do many people have suggested but i would try, tactfully, to get to the botzom of it, without assuming thst everything your daughter has said us 100% true.

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Cliona1972 · 29/08/2018 19:47

i wouldn't even bother talking to her, run away and stay away.

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