Do the HOOKY pokey

I rolled out of bed at 7am like normal, pulled on my gauchos and went to make the morning porridge (on the stove of course, microwaves being explicitly shunned from the household). I look, up and there's Michelle in her night gown. My heart sinks, I know what's coming next. "Benji's sick. He woke up at 6am saying he hurt all over. I gave him some medicine and a few minutes later he was fine. But you know, something's going around so he should stay home from school." Oh sweet self-justification.

A few minutes later, Benji appears in the kitchen, and happily and matter-of-factly explains he's not going to school. Gets dressed, eats, then goes upstairs to get his slippers. I hear some pounding, and Benji telling Michelle, "Mummy watch how good I can skip!" More pounding, then seconds later Toby wakes up, realizes Benji isn't going to school, and immediately starts up with intense histrionics. This all continues for a good 15 minutes, then once Toby is calmed down, Benji starts up again because he doesn't want to play his violin. Then like clockwork, Toby is screaming again because Marc wanted him out of the room while they were practicing. Meanwhile I am in the middle of this temper-tantrum tornado, trying to hold back my own tears from being so overwhelmed by all the chaos, and being so disappointed/pissed off that I have to cancel my plans for the day (hiking with another au pair friend then meeting with a random guy she met to practice french), and work 7 hours without pay.

My own waterworks finally kicked in while I was writing an email to my mom. Thinking back to when I was in elementary school, I don't remember EVER getting to stay home for 10 minutes of a transient stomachache. My own mom was pretty hard to convince that you were sick, the criteria mainly being throwing up, high fever or some kind of rash. I hated that she was so tough, but tangible evidence was her baseline criteria. Of course this caused lots of morning debate in deciding you were going to stay home, and on some occasions saw the arsenal of my acting skills deployed in full force. But still, I liked school, and don't think I missed for than 3 or 4 days a year.

That's why this new environment is so challenging to me, because my own upbringing was based on a "least restrictive environment" philosphy I was allowed to do things (ie-not wear a hat outside for fear of sun cancer, stay up late with my parents, and look after my self from a pretty young age) that I can't see my charges doing until they've moved out for college. My own upbringing was extremely laissez-faire, while my new environment is meticulous, calculated and protective, and I have a hard time understanding and believing in it.

And for the icing on the cake.....Benji asked when we could watch T.V. ("because mummy said so," in extemely whiny tone). I said we are going to wait until Toby gets home, and he stated, "well, I get to choose because I am sick." I told him that "No, we are all going to decide together on what to watch. And now you are going to write your numbers 1-20."

No sooner had I closed my mouth from this last sentence, he had already begun clenching his stomach and squealing, "Oww owww the tummy ache is coming, back, I need to go lie down on the canapé (couch)."

6 years old and mastered the art of playing hooky. Touché, kid, that must be some kind of record.