Anyone else hate the school run?

Caroline73_2

It all becomes like a self fulfilling prophecy though, doesn't it?

If you think all the other mums are chaos/cliquey/stupid etc. You'll treat them in that way and that's how they will then react.

Marisco

Reading this thread all I can say is, thank god mine are adults!! Is this a new phenomena, since the introduction of "choice"? I never had this problem, as most of the mothers lived round the school, so we all knew each other anyway, and some were even childhood friends, so we'd grown up together. When I first took my daughter to school, the headmaster was the same one I had when I was in primary!!:eek: He said it made him feel ancient! I thought he was ancient when I was in school, but funnily enough, he looked exactly the same 20 odd years later!!!

barbiedoll

Oh, I used to love the school run. I live in a *ahem* lower-class area, although looking at some of the mums, you wouldn't think so. I also worked in a pharmacy around the corner from the school so I knew exactly who was "fiddling the social" when I saw who was claiming income support on the back of their prescriptions and yet still driving a huge new car and having holidays at Disneyland for 3 weeks at a time! :mad:

Some of the mums used to come out dressed to the nines (all fake Uggs and knock-off designer jeans :rotfl:) and once or twice, I even saw proper stand-up fights between a couple of women!

I made some nice friends at the school gates though, a few of whom I still see now. It was very handy having someone to call if I couldn't get there on time, I did return the favour myself, several times. I know what you all mean about the PTA types though, they do hog the teachers attention AND they bring the biggest presents in at Christmas!

(One of our PTA stalwarts, who was always dressed to impress first thing in the morning, was discovered by her husband to have been "playing away". Sadly for her, she lived on the main road where most of us passed by during the school run. We found out what was going on when her husband started throwing her stuff out of the bedroom window one afternoon, whilst shouting that she could clear off to her lover and that he was welcome to her. This was at around 3pm, there were quite a few witnesses, it was the talk of the school for weeks! :eek:)

Pu55y_Galore

I'm not keen, but needs must:cool:

Bumpmakesfour

skylight wrote: »

I too hate school runs. Very few mums will talk to me and I suspect its down to a) I pronounce all my letters and b) I don't watch soaps so we have nothing to talk about. Apparently, I am known as the snobby one, which does make me laugh especially on those running late days so I haven't showered and am wearing tacksuit bottoms and my car is the oldest clapped out embarassing thing others tend to park away from!

My excuse though for not striking up conversation though is that I am not brain dead enough. One of the last conversations was when DD2 and I were looking at a Red Kite flying above the school grounds - not a usual sight as we live in a large town - and we were chatting about it. A mum asked what we were looking at and DD2 pointed and told her that it was a Red Kite. The mum replied (yes.. you can guess where this is going, can't you??) "That's not a kite, its a bird". I gave up after that. Happy in the knowledge I am the snobby one.

Are you actually for real?You pronounce all your letters,don't watch soaps and aren't brain dead so THAT is why nobody chooses to speak to you?I suspect the superior attitude you appear to have has far,far more to do with people not speaking to you than your choice in television programmes

skylight

Bumpmakesfour wrote: »

Are you actually for real?You pronounce all your letters,don't watch soaps and aren't brain dead so THAT is why nobody chooses to speak to you?I suspect the superior attitude you appear to have has far,far more to do with people not speaking to you than your choice in television programmes

You have no idea of the state of some of the women at the school!! At they do is discuss soaps. They have no interest in anything else at all. Seriously. And I have been told that "she doesn't like your accent; you're not like us". Couldn't be further from the truth.


Of course, I assumed most people were also intelligent enough to see the humour in my post. Sorry. I was certainly wrong there.

adamantine

claire16c wrote: »

Do you think maybe they are intimidated by you? I dont mean that in a bad way.

its possible but i dont know most of them and they dont know me but i suppose that my hair is done and make up on most days coz as soon as i drop DS1 off me and DS2 are away for the day doing whatever it is we need to do so maybe i am intimidating in some way.

i suppose some people would call me a snob but others would call me the opposite as im getting divorced and live in a council house on benefits while im looking for work!

cant win either way i guess.

Bumpmakesfour

skylight wrote: »

You have no idea of the state of some of the women at the school!! At they do is discuss soaps. They have no interest in anything else at all. Seriously. And I have been told that "she doesn't like your accent; you're not like us". Couldn't be further from the truth.


Of course, I assumed most people were also intelligent enough to see the humour in my post. Sorry. I was certainly wrong there.

So you're now making assumptions about MY intelligence too?Exactly HOW far up your own behind are you just out of curiosity? oh deary deary me :rotfl:
p.s those little smiley faces over there ---> are useful and can help get the point across,but I assumed "most people" knew that

runningwoman

Cheers OP, for pointing out the human dynamic where you can't keep yourself to yourself without it being viewed as "stand-offish".


Personally I really don't care what my colleagues or peers are up to, I like to keep myself to myself just because I do - I'm not judging or "being better" than anyone, I just like to do my own things with people I choose to spend time with.

I aspire to have friends whose company I enjoy and who I can be "myself" with and I can completely trust and vice versa, not just to fit in and to show I'm "one of the girls".

No reason to justify this. I'm a single woman, that doesn't mean I HAVE to always turn up to things when invited or be the one to fill in on the tennis team or offer conversation beyond "good morning" or help out at someone's bloody charity get together or whatever. If I had babies that wouldn't mean I felt the same as every other woman with babies in the world.

I bloody hate that expectation that just because I'm got ladybits I'm some sort of sociable supportive creature, I like being a moody isolated git. And I don't get a bloody rejection complex if Other People want to keep themselves apart from me, I assume they've got their own stuff going on.

But it's tough when you end up getting judged as a result - where there's this thinking that "if you're not with us you're against us".

I'm not a mum but the number of times I've been on the receiving end of BS just because I don't get involved in any workplace/social hierarchy or share nuggets of my personal life for people to gossip over is unbelievable.

Oh, and I speak with an RP accent and try and dress smartly, so of course it ends up being a "class" thing and I end up being viewed as snobbish because I'm a private person (plus I'm partially deaf but don't wear an aid so not good at conversations in big groups). Never mind that I'm not actually posh, I still end up getting done up the rear for other people's insecurities.

Grand debate OP, thanks for starting it

meritaten

Where my other granddaughter goes to school, there is a clique of PTA mums who are soooooooo annoying - not only do they not speak to anyone else - they speak Welsh amongst themselves, which means you dont even have the entertainment factor of eavesdropping!