AIBU To Think That The Chalet School Matron Would Be In Prison Nowadays

[TheShellBeach]

..........................for giving unprescribed sedatives to the girls so frequently.

(lighthearted) (in case a million people tell me that IABU)

The Chalet School Matron was forever doling out sedatives to the girls, without even asking Jack Maynard to prescribe them first.
Shocking stuff. Nowadays, she would be jailed and struck off the NMC Register.

I did like the bit where she got the chance to tell Annis' aunt exactly what she thought of her. Pity we didn't get it in print though.

Why doesn’t my dh ship me off to lovely guesthouses whenever I’m a bit tired 🤔

I know, Penny rest sounds amazing. Any time Jo has a couple of nights getting up with a teething baby she's sent off for a month's rest. I have an 18 month old who rarely sleeps more than 2 hours at a time, I feel my turn is long overdue!

In fairness to Joey the hysterics and sudden swooning make total sense if you are going to be sent off on holiday afterwards!

I always suspected that what Joey actually said and what she told them she'd said was a totally different kettle of fish.
A bit like "and all the bus clapped" moments.

She probably either was seen early on and the curtain pulled back and told to stop eavesdropping and get out, and had to slink away with her tail between her legs or she saw the Captain going in, and deliberately went to hide and didn't come out so neither of them knew she'd heard it.

Mine does!

Oh hang on. Maybe it's just our bedroom................

Mrs. Maynard laughed at her. "Theodora?" She turned to the stunned owner of the name, and asked plaintively, "Must we?"

"Must you what?" Theodora gasped.

"Make it the whole thing? No-one on this earth ought to have to answer to four syllables every day of her life! Won't one do you? Mayn't we make it 'Ted'?"

She sat down.

"You'll have to make up your mind to it, my lamb!"

This is the first time Theodora meets Joey Maynard. It is actually the first person she speaks to in the CS.

I am only surprised that she didn't run away as soon as everyone was asleep that night, calling in at Freudesheim on her way, and murdering Joey with a blunt instrument.

Yes! What a cow!

Also why did it have to be Ted, it could have easily been Theo, or Dora (which at least is a girls name)

This one really irritates me because as someone with a first name that has 3 or so common nicknames, like a name like Elizabeth or Margaret does for example, it irritates me when someone presumes which nickname I should be called by without asking me my preference first.

Trebizon? Yep. Lucy. Can't remember her surname. She was precocious, in a class (and therefore residential house) two years older, and her mother was a dreadful teacher. The girls think she has a boyfriend because she's continually making sentimental phone calls, which turn out to be to her dad.

In the later books (after her mother has been gently but firmly asked to leave and they've sorted out some sort of scholarship deal) she still does classes with them but lives with the younger girls. Also turns out to be a decent gymnast, iirc.

"................it irritates me when someone presumes which nickname I should be called by without asking me my preference first"

Or even if you want a nickname.

Agree. I’ve always thought that the most obvious nicknames for my name are very ugly. I’ve always insisted on going by my full name.

It’d really annoy me and get me off on the wrong foot with someone if they announced that I should “have to” agree to go by <ugly nickname> as if it’s all a done deal and I’ve no real say in the matter.

Why were the Lucy’s always referred to as nickname and surname? Vi Lucy, Betsy Lucy etc never happens to anyone else

Wasn't Theodora sent to the Chalet School because she had anger management issues? She should have biffed Joey on the chops and stormed out stopping only to yell over her shoulder 'it's Theodora, bitch!'

I think Theodora was sent to the CS because she had a silly mother and had been expelled from several schools for apparently exercising a fascination over other girls, which culminated in her smoking out a bathroom window and giving a bareback riding display during a riding lesson or something?

I agree that her actual reform, once she arrives at the CS, is promptly renamed by Joey before she even sees her dormitory, and then has a deeply bizarre hairdressing intervention by Miss Annersley, who brushes her hair and ties it back with a red ribbon which is somehow transformative, is disappointingly immediate. And there's no evidence whatsoever that she possesses any kind of fascination for other girls at all, as she ends up being enforced friends with Dull as Ditchwater Len and Rosamund Lilley after they have to be isolated when they encounter a smallpox (scarlet fever?) case, and spend it, as you do, doing extra schoolwork with a handy nun.

I mean, at least Joan Baker complained about paper games and expressed her horror at cold baths. I'm with her on both.

How on earth do they manage that? Half the plots involve Darrell decking someone or other!

She shouts I think. Loses the impact.

I mean, at least Joan Baker complained about paper games and expressed her horror at cold baths. I'm with her on both.

Joan expressed horror at having any kind of bath IIRC. She said that as she'd washed the evening before, there was no need for her to have a bath (cold or otherwise) in the morning.

That would be a splendid MN thread.

"DD's new friend says she only washes once a day - AIBU to point out that everyone on MN showers AT LEAST twice a day, and sometimes more often"

And there's no evidence whatsoever that she possesses any kind of fascination for other girls at all

Quite true. Theodora seems to be every bit as dull and worthy as Len Maynard herself.

Somehow I cannot envisage her smoking out of a window, never mind riding bareback anywhere.

It does make me wonder if another of Theodora’s classmates was the actual ringleader, and Theodora was just one of the crowd - but one who was unfortunate enough to be saddled with all the blame.

I've just started the Chalet School in Exile again. I know it was set in late 1930s but I can't get over how the first day that Jo shows an interest in Jack they get engaged (unless I've forgotten something from an earlier book) 😂

She's got to keep Grizel from getting involved with him instead

There was another fanfic (might be in Sally Denny Library, not sure) where Jo went to Belsornia with Elisaveta and Grizel married Jack instead. They got on very well together.

Joey being bitchy about Theodora again, discussing her with Rosalie Dene:

"Let's get back to Ted! Has anyone done anything about her appearance yet? No girl could be expected to give her mind to lessons who is allowed to go about looking like a little freak! If she were mind I'd have that awful mop of hair cropped and I'd do something about her complexion, too!"

Really, Joey? I seem to remember EBD mentioning Joey's untidy hair frequently in the earliest CS books. In fact, it's only when she's about to leave school that she grows her hair and starts to fashion it into that bizarre earphone style which you would think might have put Jack right off her (eventually).

"AIBU to wish my wife would update her hairstyle? Earphones giving me the ick"

I have always wondered why EBD mentions Con "mooning" all the time - and Verity Carey, too. And what does EBD mean by a "silvery" voice? I have never understood that.

Verity sounds to me as though she has ADHD (chronically disorganised, needs Mary-Lou to make her bed for her and do her hair every morning).

Whenever I think of Con or Verity "mooning" I imagine them sticking their bare bums out at the top of the stairs, for everyone to see.