Purely Parent on a Teachers' Day

 

I got the girls bottled candies from Sticky for their teachers for Teachers' Day for two years running.

The candies contained words customised for Teachers' Day which I thought was somewhat 'personalised' in terms of occupation. I also thought it was something small and easy to dispose of when the teachers are done with the present. My friends and I have problems deciding what to do with the impractical presents ie. paper/fabric flowers and soft toys after the Day is over. We usually keep them in forgotten places until years later, when we take them out again, besides trying to recall in vain which student gave what and reminiscing the wonderful things the students wrote about you, we often have to discard or give away the bulkier items to make room for storage. I take comfort in that I have kept the gifts for five years or more and the students would have forgotten about me (and the presents they gave). The only gifts I could keep without worrying about storage are cards which I often appreciate more than any other gifts.

This year, I bought seven bottles of candies for Baby and five for Coco. Baby was more decisive. She knew who she wanted to give to. She even wrote the names down on a piece of paper in case I forgot! Coco could not tell me a number though. I had to suggest 'Is five enough?'.

In the silence of the night, I decided to customise the bottles, by my own hands literally, by tying a ribbon on each bottle. I spent so much time on the first bottle trying to decide on the best length and figuring how to tie the bow-like ribbon that William remarked,"You cannot start a business - you spend too much time on making even one product!"

The effort paid off though. Baby loved the ribbons.

At Baby's school, I was enlisted to help out with a tea ceremony in which students were required to serve tea to their teachers as well as non-teaching staff. 

 

Parent-volunteers like me helped to pour out tea into paper teacups for the students to serve tea to their teachers. 

The school was still trying out different ways of tea-serving despite having started this tradition on Teachers' Day three or four years ago by the principal. Instructions via WhatsApp were unclear and despite being briefed on what to do, some parent-volunteers decided to improvise the steps or create their own systems which made the ceremony quite rowdy for some classes.

But all in all, it was quite smoothly run despite the hiccups and teething problems.

However, the hours were quite long and labour-intensive for a parent-volunteer activity. I was in school since 7.30am and it only ended at 12pm, with a one-hour break between 10am and 11am. We had to stand most of the time and the indoor sports hall was warm and humid. 

After the ceremony, I lingered around the neighbourhood to catch a few Clefairies and other Pokemons while waiting for school to end at 1.30pm.

When I reached home, I was exhausted. I dozed off while lying on the couch to have a short rest!