Invasion of the BIO-snatchers

One huge sigh of relief. Today marks the beginning of the end of 12 hr consecutive days with the children. My time with the kids will no doubt be hectic and crazy, but at least it will be shorter amounts of time filled with more to do, and hooray for that.

I dropped Benji off at his school today with Michelle and Marc, and met his teacher Joy. She was tall, blond, leggy, and gorgeous....Michelle said she's the reason while I'll see far more fathers dropping their children off than in any other class (I'll keep you posted on waht I observe). Benji's school is amazing, it's L'école internationale de Genève, and most all the kids' parents (read: fathers) are diplomats or CEO's who've relocated to Geneva. This made for an acoustic adventure down the hall to his class, where I heard at least 6 different languages (French dominated, with english, italian, german, dutch, and chinese/japonese/korean.....can't tell the difference and it was probably all of them anyways).

The mothers are another story. Most Swiss and French, all impeccably dressed in pleated skirts, lacoste polos, kitten heels, with chic hair and perfect skin. Their children are veritable mini-me's, with the same blasé air about them. At last I understood why Michelle said that going to parents night always gives her minor anxiety attacks. It's really just like high school with the "popular" girls in their little cliques.... though for Michelle I can't understand why she feels that way, given her professional success, stylish if dated clothes, and amazing body after 2 kids. Needless to say I felt quite sloppy in my Girls on the Run t-shirt and target capris, but really who can be bothered to get dressed up at 7am, when your job is to make porridge (read: oatmeal) for children?

Benji's friend Evie came over yesterday, and listening to her mother (who is a project manager for Ralph Lauren.... note to self, MUST befriend her) and Michelle speak was quite a surreal experience. The subject of choice was how food causes cancer. Michelle already has me buying everything from meat (understandable), to juice (a waste of money), to dried fruit (just insane!), BIO, for 2 to 4 times the normal price, which is already VERY expensive in Geneva. Marie-Claire (the other mother) then proceeded to tell Michelle about a woman who has done LOTS of research on how (apparently?) deadly food can be. Michelle counters with, "oh, but we buy bio everything."

But oh no, this doesn't put Marie-Claire at rest. "But you see, with bio, there are no pesticides. So the germs from the migrant workers who don't wash their hands are faaaaar (british accent emphasized) more abundant. So and so (overly obsessive mother who researches everything) says you must wash all bio fruit and vegetables thoroughly with soap, then spray with grapeseed oil. She RARELY eats fish, because of the high levels of metal toxins. Of course she doesn't touch chicken what with avian flu and all, and of course no red meat."


I listen to this exchange with amusement, wondering how anyone could be so incredibly anal retentive about what she eatss (what, exactly, does she eat I wonder?), and feel very sorry for her children. Also a bit horrified as it will most likely be me who does the washing of the fruit and spraying of the grapeseed oil. All the while, Michelle's eyes are bulging in terror. "I must meet this woman. What's her name? Do you think she would do a lunch date?!?!"
Oh sweet jesus. What the hell am I going to feed the children now? It's one thing to be knowledgable, which Michelle definitely is. But digging this far into the literatury genre of "what's going to kill me and my kids today," is just too much! If you heeded every warning, and thought of everything that could possibly do you harm, you would never get out of bed or leave the house.

Since moving to Genevea (over a month ago, thank you!) I've gotten much more comfortable speaking my mind, and not feeling like I need to apologize or mince my words. If she asks my opinion on the matter, I plan on telling her, in so many words, that I find it rather ridiculous to be that concerned over every morsel you put into your mouth. Probly won't help at all, but at least she'll get perspective from someone other than yuppy-tight mothers.

But I still have the feeling that you're reading the blog of a girl who will soon be drinking BIO water.