Meet the Parents

A couple weeks ago I had Open House...on a Saturday, but I'll get over that eventually. It was a totally different experience from the Open Houses of Berwyn and Waukegan, Illinois. It was different from Puerto Rico too. First of all, the other teachers had prepared us newbies for ALL the parents to come, which I'm not used to at all. They said it's very unusual for parents to miss Open House, especially the Second Grade Open House, since they are the "new kids" to the Primary wing. I had also been told to get my nails done and dress up a little. I was used to the getting dressed up part, but not the nails. I've never worried about them before, so I was thinking that I really should prepare a more formal presentation and be ready to be scrutinized I guess. What I found that day was a pleasant surprise. I gave my presentation, met everyone, then had a few minutes to stand around and socialize a bit. The energy in the room was great, most of the parents already know each other so they were all chatting. Then, one of the moms asked me so genuinely, "So, Carrie, how are you adjusting so far?" I thought that was the nicest thing to say, in fact it caught me off guard a bit. I told them that I loved everything about Cali so far and that the only hard part was all the bug bites. Then, they just kept asking me questions and it was just so unusual for me. I'm used to parents coming to Open House, not feeling comfortable talking to me, then skipping out as soon as they can. These parents though seemed to want to take me out for a beer and show me around Cali, it was pretty wild. One of my friends Jeremy, who teaches third grade, did get asked to go to lunch with one of the families from Open House afterwards. He and his girlfriend got a tour of Cali, went out to lunch, then were offered manicures and pedicures. They were also offered a free stay at a beach house on an island nearby whenever they'd like! So friendly.


I had my own experience with some parents about a week or two ago. I was invited to one of the girls' houses. She's new this year and the mom wanted to make sure she is making friends, so she invited all the girls to her house for a little after school party on a Friday. I also was invited. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate or not for me to go, but I decided that I came here to experience Colombia and that maybe this is a part of it. I took a taxi to her house because I played basketball that day after school. The house was a bit hard to find but absolutely beautiful. Very big, very open, and a huge back yard with a pool. The girls were swimming when I got there, so I talked with Paula's mom for awhile. She asked if I wanted some juice and one of her maids (yes, I said one of...she had three total) brought me a glass of juice on a tray. Not used to that! Then, after making perfume and cupcakes with the girls, a couple other moms stopped by and stayed to chat. One of them decided that she would call her driver/maid/nanny (?) to come drop off appetizers and a bottle of wine. So, I found myself drinking wine and talking American politics with three moms of my students. It was fun, but I felt a little out of place, especially when they started talking about how it was so important to do background checks on the people hired to work in the house such as the maids and nannies. We kept being catered to, which was the other strange part for me. Everytime I thought it might be a good time to go home, another glass of wine was poured and more snacks brought to the table. I ended up getting a ride home from one of the moms, which was so nice of her, but still so weird because my student was sitting in the back seat asking me what I was going to do for the rest of the weekend. The whole experience felt a bit bizarre, but also lovely at the same time. It feels nice to know the parents a bit, I'm not used to that as I mentioned.