Gate crashing the school network [IrishTimes]
- Published: 25 January 2011
Where will you find the best parenting advice, gossip, information and friendship? There’s no need to go back to school – it’s the school gates where all the action happens, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
WHEN MY eldest child started school, I worked full-time outside the home and while I did the drop-off, I was rarely able to collect him. For most people in the mornings it is a case of “dump the kids and run”, but the pick-up is a more prolonged and sociable affair.
The odd time I could be there, I found those huddles of other parents at the school gate quite intimidating. I never felt like I belonged in the ranks of “proper mums” who were there day after day, comfortably trading play dates, discussing what they were making for dinner and where they were going for the mid-term break.
I would scan the chattering cliques for a friendly face who might give me a way into conversation or stand apart and feel self-conscious – until the children started to stream out and provide a welcome interruption.
Yet this curious social network of people drawn together by their children fascinated me. Having gone to a junior school in the city centre, where as infants we sat cross-legged on the floor of the corridor outside our classroom waiting for our mothers to come in and retrieve us, I was, believe it or not, in my 30s before I first encountered a lunchtime crowd on a pavement outside a national school. I wondered what on earth all those women were doing.
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