Grandparents Day

Ah, yes, Grandparents (and Special Friends) Day at the day school. A wonderful way to show off the school to those who care about our children. Some low-key (I hope!) please for donations, a little bragging by the kids. Should be lovely, right?

Except they scheduled it for 8:15 a.m., which meant that any grandparent who lived further away than the grandchildren from the school had to SLEEP OVER.

Which meant that grandparents (ok, mostly grandmothers) across the Commonwealth had another chance to criticize their children.

Yeah.

I has so pleased that it was in the 90s yesterday, because I figured that for once, my mother would not be too cold in my house. Within 5 minutes of arrival, she complained, "Why is it so hot in here?!"

After having to explain (again) why the boys both have therapists, I had to hear rants about how Sam's social circle is too small for someone so sensitive, and how we are LYING to Micah about his glasses (even though we've been very careful never to tell him he NEEDS them!).

Ok, all normal stuff. For her.

But what got me was her questions about Sofia. I was telling her how well Sofia had done at camp last week, and how in November, we (parents, teachers) will be evaluating her to see if she'll really be ready for kindergarten in 2010. "Well, how will you know? How can they tell with kids like her?" (And yes, that had to be repeated a few times, for full effect).

Later, I was showing her pictures from Conny Wenk's website. She nodded politely, and was thrilled to see the two young teen girls. "See, they are both thin. That's good."

This morning was a constant list of comments about Micah's hair, Sam's lack of a sweater (she finally made him put one on, 15 minutes before they left the house), and Sofia's appetite. At one point she was holding Sofia and trying to coax a kiss. I said "Sofia, Neshika L'Savta" (which is Hebrew for "Kiss to Grandma")". She got VERY angry - because she doesn't speak Hebrew and doesn't want to hear us speaking it. (Can I consider that payback for when they spoke Yiddish when I was a kid?)


Ok, enough ranting. I'm a wee bit stressed. And now I have to run some errands and go over to the school to help sell yearbook boosters...