Hubris in the "real world"

I was astounded at this woman’s hubris! A working mother emailed another volunteer and I to enlighten us on the ways of the “real world”. As if our world of stay-at-home moms and the teachers at our elementary school are make-believe.

I can assure her that there is nothing imaginary about cleaning up diarrhea, giving breathing treatments and medicine every four hours to two sick kids, and trying to recreate the boys’ school day so that they don’t get behind while baking bread, doing laundry and cleaning the house.

I can also assure her that there is nothing imaginary in a school teacher working a long day with 22 kids and then going home to grade papers. Even if I am not a school teacher, I can appreciate what they do. After all, I’m related to a few, and have been taught by several exceptional ones. I know that they feel that there is nothing imaginary about dealing with difficult children, or in some cases, their more difficult parents.

But the sheer arrogance of this woman to assume that no one else works in the “real world” is astounding. What does she think? That we all got our degrees and then stayed at home to pop out babies, cook and clean while filling our heads with daytime television?

Not that I’m knocking that route at all, or any route for that matter. But, almost every stay-at-home mom in this neighborhood left their careers to stay at home with their children. We understand what working in the “real world” is like thank you very much. And more importantly, we also know what it is like to stay at home. Us stay-at-home moms in this neighborhood have college degrees, nursing degrees, master’s degrees, and even a couple of doctorate degrees. A few of us are even former teachers.

Now, I had debated about sharing how this whole thing started because a few of those wonderful teachers at our school read my blog. But then I also know that they’ve heard it all before.

So, it all started with a simple email telling the parents in our children’s class that our grade level is providing snacks for the upcoming monthly staff meeting and asked if any of the parents would be interested in contributing anything from a list of items.

Instead of ignoring the email, or responding to our homeroom parent directly, this woman responded to the entire class telling us how shocked she was to receive this request. She asked, “What next, contributing to the teacher’s lunch fund?”

We responded by saying that we were sorry that she felt that way. And, that as she mentioned herself in the email, this is optional and not required. I also added that this has been done in the past and that our teachers work very hard. This is simply one way we choose to thank them.

Well, that pissed her off.

She wanted us to know that her child had gone to our school for the past few years and she had never received this request. (Quite possible, as every homeroom parent handles this differently – some provide the snacks themselves, while some others ask a few people directly.)

Then she gets on a roll to let us know that she works very hard too and doesn’t get snacks at her staff meetings. (Maybe she’s jealous?) She understands that our teachers work very hard too, but that her expectation is that they should have a potluck, or that their manager should provide something. (Does she really think the principal should provide snacks for more than 60 people at each meeting?) “Just a difference of opinion as someone who works in a real world environment.”

Can I just say, “Wow!”

I’d love to respond and tell her that maybe she can go to a “real” bookstore and find a “real” book on manners and etiquette and shove it up her “real” butt.

But that would be a waste of time. I can tell that this woman prefers to climb up on her cross and there isn’t anything that I can say that will make any difference at all. So, I’ll just be satisfied with sharing with you all instead.

Enjoy your hump day!