I know it's parent's evening but please don't sit on me!

Last night I had the task of facing 3 hours (yes I did say that) of parents evening at my youngest son's school.

I had promised his head of learning that I would attend after we both expressed concern about Mathew's failure to progress at the end of the previous academic year (Year 7 - otherwise known as Year 1 to those of us born before about 1990!!) and as I hadn't been to his previous one it was obviously something which needed addressing.

Arriving in the school atrium my son was forced to sign in (acknowledging that some children fail to turn up though I do, I'm sure that the teachers themselves ARE capable of noting who they see & who they don't) before we went into find the first on the list of appointments.

Now most parents who have attended a parents consultation evening at Secondary education level will know I speak the truth here - YOUR APPOINTMENTS WILL NEVER EVER RUN ON TIME - this is guaranteed. However at the commencement of the scheduled time slots you always carry a hope that this one consultation will be different, and that Miss so-and-so or Mr What's-his-face will be adhering to the allocated 5 minute slots for each set of parent/child combo.......

Like heck....

Generally, however, and I'll be fair here, this is NOT the teacher in question's fault, but the parent attending the meeting..... I have sat waiting in line behind many a full-bodied mother/father team with their poor son or daughter watching (and trying desperately not to listen in) whilst they express great concern/admiration/frustration about poor Tristan/Jemima, waving hands, tugging clothes, son/daughter burying head further & further into chest out of shear embarrassment......

I'm no angel, don't get me wrong, I have strayed over the 5 minutes set aside for me by a minute or two when meeting a specific teacher of one of my kids at some point I'm sure, but where I have been aware of the need to extend the conversation I will always arrange to meet/call & speak another time. It is so unfair on those of us sitting waiting for our turn, to just assume that you can carry on chatting away & not impact the rest of the evening .... especially as you too probably have other teachers waiting to see you too!!

Not only do you have parents taking far too long with teachers, there are those who seem to think that they can make up their own appointment times - excuse me but most of us arranged the times we have for a reason, not so that we can fit around you... please don't assume you can just "squeeze in ahead of us" .... For those working parents for whom fitting in Parent Consultation Evenings is hard enough already, shift workers, those who work long hours, those who use public transport or parents with issues of child care for younger siblings  seeing some "well meaning" parent try to push in before they are due, or because they are running late and have missed their scheduled time slot, they want to "slide in" quickly "hope thats ok?"... er, actually, no. It's not.
It's not my fault you were late. If I was late I wouldn't expect to try and be seen unless it was plainly clear the teacher had no-one sitting waiting for them, and even then, it would have to be with a margin of concern for the next arrival.... And there would be NO WAY I would attempt to get seen before my time unless requested to do so by the teacher as previous appointment had failed to arrive at the event (only possible benefit of the signing in process I mentioned at the beginning of this as that they could check if a particular child had arrived at all)

Finally, and maybe peculiar to myself and my poor children (Mathew & his little sister who had to come along for the ride) please please please.....
always make sure you are aware of your surroundings when sitting in a crowded parents evening hall....

we lost count of the number of times one of us was trodden on, elbowed, had our back hit by the chair behind us, but worst of all was the failed attempt I experienced of someone trying to sit on me because they hadn't noticed they were moving into an occupied chair........

I mean...
Really?
Invisible am I as well as a Mother of 4?