Wednesday 18 January 2012

Having a bad Wednesday? We have a form for that.

{This post is punctuated with my favourite gloomy photos of Berlin just to cheer me up*}



I made a fool of myself this morning by crying at Kita.



Hamish was screaming like a banshee and I had been wrestling his coat and boots off of him while trying to talk calmly to him. But that wasn't working and as I was putting his stuff in his cupboard and closing the lock he was screaming at my heels and unlocking it and grabbing all his belongings back again.



Normally, this wouldn't happen. it's never normally as bad. But today was a screaming and howling all the way there kind of a day, and normally even if this did happen I would have the time to sit and cuddle him and make him feel better, and the time to get him settled and playing and looking for his little friend.



Today however, I had to get back to the apartment as quick as possible in order to wait in for a guy coming to change the water meters. And of course, because the child-to-staff ratio is so high here, there wasn't anyone who could help me just deal with Hamish.



So I ended up shouting "Enough!", which caused all the other mothers to stare at me - honestly, do German mothers never shout at their children?, which made me feel like some kind of foreign outcast, and then after some more screaming, calm talking, and further wrestling of coats and boots from tiny, claw-like, vice-gripping fingers, I gave up.




I was running out of time, and I had to get home. So, I told Hamish just to get his boots back on, and I helped him on with his coat, and it was at this point (with parents still staring at me), that one of the staff came up. I said 'I must go', and figured she knew the score. Instead she started lecturing me about why I hadn't handed the form back in for Hamish to do sport. I tried to explain that I was having 'some difficulties' and that I couldn't give a crap about didn't have the Sport form. No kind words; no "He'll be fine here"; no "Let me take him so you can go"; just "Why have you not completed the Sport form?".



So I cried. And I left. On the plus side, it's a reminder that it's not all good times and lovely living here. There are still times when I feel like such a total outsider here that the prospect of going back to the UK in five months is a comfort. If it comes to the point whereby we know we are definitely going back and I am having serious second thoughts about it, I think I might take myself to the Burgeramt and apply for a new parking permit or something without having all the correct paperwork with me. That should sort that out.



{*Should you wish to flick through a few more of my photos, dreary or cheery, feel free to visit my flickr page}

5 comments:

  1. So sorry you had such a, ahem..."trying" morning. :( I have a little one myself and have definitely had those days. And who cares if you cried at Kita? If the other mothers haven't done it publicly surely they've run off somewhere else to do it at some point. I've almost been in tears just shopping with my little Man so don't let it get you down.

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  2. Sorry to hear about your horrid morning. I've had just the same here in Stockholm with a hyperactive toddler running around the cloakroom screeching, while I sit on the child-sized bench and have a little cry because it has all become too much. I had the same reaction as you - "Don't people here ever get upset with their children?". I hope your day got better.

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  3. Sorry to hear about your shit morning, my dear. It's always the times when you don't have time that the little buggers decide to go mad on you :-(
    You should maybe speak to the Erzieherin in question when you next see her and ask her to perhaps handle things a little more sensitively next time? (I often find airing your grievances much more productive in Germany than in the UK)
    Hugs x

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  4. Thanks all. Well it turns out that Hamish now no longer wants to go back to that Kita because the hitting (that I've been speaking to the Kita about now for months) is getting out of hand. Hamish told me last night why he went nuts about not going: it turns out his best friend punched him in the face. I just feel like I have had enough of it. It makes me angry because all the mothers will give me looks of disgust if I raise my voice and shout (not very loudly really) "Enough!", but they find it acceptable that their kids are knocking lumps out of, biting, scratching each other. I am sure it has a lot to do with the crap staff to child ratio, but from what I've heard that's standard and something tells me I am not going to find a Kita where there aren't kids hitting each other.

    I'm going to speak to them again, but I suspect I may be looking at another Kita shortly.

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  5. Oh rats for you. That all sounds like a really crappy mountain of poo to deal with. I hope Hamish is happier next time, and the little buggers who are walloping him get their just deserts!

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