will WE play in Peoria?

This whole canteen thing is getting completely out of control.

Today while eating lunch at home, Kaitlyn announced that she is afraid to go to school. I asked her what she is afraid of. Because I have no problem dropping her off… she kisses me good-bye and goes to play. When I pick her up she is always smiling and happy. Then out of the blue, she told me two times today (lunch and this morning) that she is afraid. So when I probed for some details, which are always sketchy when she tells a tale, she said she is afraid of the canteen. She has eaten there fairly regularly for months now. Generally when you ask her favorite thing about school, she says “eating upstairs.” Which is how she has always referred to the canteen. Until now.

The first thing that changed is she no longer says she eats upstairs. She calls it the canteen and she pronounces it like she’s French. If you say it with an American accent, she looks at you like she has no idea what word you’ve just uttered. Just like a French person will do to you.

The only other thing that seems to have changed is one of her little friends is eating there every day. And hates it. The other American mothers have taken to trying to drop our kids off without being seen, because this child will grab you and hold you and cry for her mommy or daddy. It is heartbreaking. And there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ve hesitated to tel l her mom because I was so peeved last year when someone told me that Kaitlyn was “seen crying” in the canteen. Further investigation with the teacher revealed she was just having normal 4 year old moments. And maybe this little girl is going through some normal 4 year old reactions to having her day completely changed… from spending all summer at Grandma’s to spending all day at school. But I feel caught in the middle. Do I be a butt-in-ski? Would it help? Or is this just something she has to go through then she’ll be over it and all fine? No way to know.

Kaitlyn said this other little girl is sad all day… because she hates the canteen. That was actually the conversation that sparked Kaitlyn’s declaration of fear. So I think that the fear may be that she’ll end up sad, too. Or that she will have to sit next to someone who cries through the meal all the time. Neither sound appealing to me, either.

When I took Kaitlyn back to school after lunch she was fine. She kissed me goodbye and went to play as long as she could get away with before nap time. The kids were already being ushered through the potty with a “tu vas faire du pee pee?” from the teaching assistant. (yes, luckily for the little ones, pee pee is the same in French.)

I thought I’d left the canteen drama behind for a while and headed to the store. While there I got a call on my cell phone from a friend whose daughters go to a different school. She wanted to talk about her own canteen drama… and the trouble she is having getting her girls adjusted to eating there.

Now, here’s the question I really cannot answer in the face of all this canteen hubub.

France is big on this whole idea of equalite. Everything is equal, especially in education. (especially in theory, mind you) So if everything is equal, then how come some of the kids eat lunch at school and some go home to eat with their mommies? And if so many women work in France (well over 50%), who do those kids eat lunch with? I’ve seen some that go “home” to eat lunch with their babysitter. Is that really any better than just eating a 4 course meal and getting some recess time?

The canteen fuss must come to a swift end. It is giving me heartburn.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 8:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.