I'M A MOTHER!!!

Yesterday, Liam wanted to drop me off at school (instead of vice versa), and today one of Liam's classmates was so surprised that I was going to school, too. Why is there such a disconnected and have a segmented society and norms that maintain those rigid roles?

It's no surpise that I struggle every day with being a mom and a student, but I have been particularly angry at the lack of provisions to student parents at the KSchool - last week, we got an e-mail from our program head saying there was a mandatory meeting for graduation the next day at 4pm. I was so pissed. I was going to fire off an e-mail to him but decided, instead, to send one to my friends first, who helped me out a bit in reframing it, as well as offer me support. I was angry because this was not enough time to juggle childcare issues, as well as being a terrible time for parents - it turns out that most "extra" events are during the full-on parental duty/time with kids - early evening hours when kids need to be picked up, fed, bathed and put to bed.

Last summer during our orientation, the program seemed very family friendly and had some child-based activities, but I've realized that it was barely lip service. This was emphasized when a major Kschool admin person told me that it's best not to "advertise" that I have kids. In other words, we are denied that part of our identity if we want to "make" it as students, or "professionals." Not to mention the fact that we have no subsidized childcare, let alone any guarantee for childcare at any rate, let alone. On top of that we are not able to develop as powerful social networks with classmates and other visitors or through events because we of time constraints.

I'm LOL because this same admin woman, when I asked her about parent friendly factors at the Kschool last fall, said that there was a highchair in the forum - ha! This is less than a crumb (not to mention the fact that I have never seen it!)