Soccer Moms

Well, American soccer moms….. they DO exist. Last week I helped out at school for the first time, a friend of mine (oh that sounds so good, I actually have a real friend now) had organised (she’s definitely NOT a soccer mom) a Hawaiian luau for the 2nd grade (approx. 60 children). But as she is not a soccer mom, and had a more laid-back attitude to the whole affair, things weren’t planned with military precision, and some moms got very flustered. It was interesting to watch how a few of them spent 20 agonising minutes to determine whether the pasta salad should be placed next to the chicken nuggets, and whether the biscuits, sorry cookies, should be opened NOW or LATER. One of them actually made me pour some crisps, sorry chips, back into the bag because she thought they shouldn’t come out till the children had eaten the chicken and pasta. Hmph. You could tell that some of those women probably had held very high-powered jobs once, and were now dealing with their new role as school-involved MOTHERS in the same way. I think I would have been scared working with them. When one of them wrenched a pretty much melted tub of ice cream away from a boy who had innocently asked for a second helping, because THERE WERE NO SECOND HELPINGS (which meant that that ice cream ended up in the bin, sorry trash) I knew what I was dealing with here. It was amusing though, but thank goodness, not all of them are like that. A few of us met at the park afterwards, and we had a good old giggle about it all.
E and F are happier by the day, and have made some really good friends. In fact, they both went to their first sleepover last night, together, to afore-mentioned friend’s house. They have 2 daughters too, and the 4 of them totally clicked. So S and I had an unexpected night off and went out! What a treat! Of course, tonight we have to pay for it by grumpy children, who clearly hadn’t gone to bed before midnight last night…. but hey, you can’t have it all, and to have found someone (similar position to me, working from home, not every day but sometimes full-on), who is happy to have my girls (and I, hers) is simply marvellous.
So, tomorrow is the big day. England v USA. We have the flag, the tattoos, we’ll all wear red and white, and annoy all our American friends with our European football, sorry soccer, enthusiasm. They won’t know what’s hit them when they turn up here tomorrow to watch the game and have a BBQ with us. I will report on the outcome later.