So the summer break is over in India, which means ‘Back to school with heavy bags on tender backs, new water bottles hanging on shoulders , chart paper and cellophane sheets rolled in the hands and all. Time when parents have shift duties to perform, when they need to be up early to pull kids out of bed and drag them into the wash room to get their teeth brushed and awaken the sleepy brats with a water splash on the face followed by an immediate body shower. It's the story of going to bed the previous day with a mind full of school going and home coming, thoughts of sharing the stress of project-work, reading and writing together, mid term tests, a fixed waking-up time, drop and pick up, menu for the school lunch box, books arranged as per the time table, a properly equipped pencil box, geometry box, colour pencils and crayons, uniform, ironing, Bata shoes, black and white cherry blossom polish, socks, ties, bag packing, listening to complaints and stories of broken test tubes etc. etc. etc.
Phew! The ‘My kid goes to school’ project is a difficult one. Planned Plan A could be the best but with kids, it would be good to keep reminding yourself about unpredictabilities and stay prepared with a back up plan say Plan B, C, D............Z to fall upon. How you act in a particular situation becomes the plan of that moment.
The school working hours keep changing every year. From 1 hour at first in LKG to full working days on weekends and holidays in ClassXII, all that is required at the parent's end is presence of mind, the ability to stay alert and be prepared to adhere to the timings.
Quarterlies , halfyearlies and finals are crucial testing times, sometimes in the forenoon and sometimes in the afternoons. But ! as a parent no matter what, you never give up on your kids - No matter how trying the situations are, key is to remember "This too shall pass " and it does, I speak from experience here.
Parenting in school is all about mediating and doing the patching up, explaining to your own child, teaching the child to be competitive with himself, to perform to the best of his capacity without comparison and sometimes talking to a parent whose child bullies others in the class.
Now, when I count the money, I would have spent on transport, school projects, annual functions and excursions, I thank my stars. As compared to the exorbitant fees charged now school fees were much cheaper a few years ago and convent education came with several concessions. The annual fees in Class X came to around Rs 8000/- only. Text books and notebooks were provided by the school at a nominal cost. School authorities took orders for the uniforms. All that the students had to do was to assemble class wise as per the dates mentioned, form a line roll no wise, give the measurements and go back to class. Pay and take atleast a minimum of three sets at a time was the option given to the parents. The weekends, vacations and rainy days were time for parents to celebrate and take it easy.
The school provided free education to under priviliged children. Call it a pitfall or a blessing of studying in a school which accomodated girl children only from all strata of society, while the children learned to be friendly with all, they came back home with heads loaded with lice. Though holidays meant leisure from pressure, at the same time it meant looking into various options on eradication of lice and how to prevent further infestation...
