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School admissions can be quite an ordeal for parents. Not just the child but the parents are also scrutinized which often make them doubt themselves.
Unlike most of the parents of preschoolers, me and my husband were absolutely ‘cool’ about our daughter’s admission. Given our credentials, we were kind of sure that no school could refuse her admission. So when the time came, I applied to just one school of which my husband is an alumni too. We were very confident that we had enough ‘points’ to secure her a seat. And that’s when the reality hit hard in our faces. She didn’t make it to the admission list.
We were shocked!
We had no clue about where we had lost in the infamous point system of the school. Now leaving aside my findings for later, (because I don’t want to offer the makers of Hindi Medium movie a ready story for sequel) I restrict this post to one issue worth deliberation.
Like all those dismayed and shocked parents, the next day I found myself standing before the school’s reception to drop in my application seeking reason for rejection. The ever so busy receptionist obliged me with her knowledge on the selection system saying there are points for everything including distance from school, your education, your work profile etc etc. I was quite sure that everything else would have worked in my girl’s favour, though the subject of ‘work profile’ intrigued me enough.
Being a stay at home mom, it was the only section that I had left blank. After several days of jarring thoughts, I let that guilt of being a non-working mom creep into me and I shed enough tears to wash it off me.
A few days later I shared my experience with one of my friends, who is a ‘working mom’, so as to say. She helped me overcome my guilt and guess how.
She stated when she had applied to a different school for her son’s admission who is the same age as my daughter, she was asked in the interview, ‘Who takes care of your child while you are working outside?’ The question obviously stunned her as much as it stunned me.
Luckily her joint family status convinced the interviewers enough to grant her boy admission. But, she wondered what might have been their reaction had she mentioned ‘creche’ or ‘day care’ instead.
So, all the mothers who brood over their choices in life, and especially because the people make them believe so, here’s the blatant reality- They won’t let you live anyway.
Although now I am not guilty anymore, I am still definitely in the league of those parents who fret about their child’s school admission.
Image Source: Movie Promo Stills/Hindi Medium
I am a stay-at-home mom, an avid reader and sometimes an impulsive writer. Otherwise an MBA, having served in the position of a business analyst at a renowned MNC for a couple of read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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