MomFails...I better stop counting.

Mom Fail=a mother falling short of expectations that might affect her kids' happiness.

I've been eating some humble pie over here.
Luckily, my kids aren't harbouring any resentment.

Halloween Costumes: Ballerina Kitty Cat and her side-kick, Squeaky Mouse

A few examples:

Halloween: Kids do not trick-or-treat here; Halloween is a relatively newly adopted North American concept. My fails were two-fold:
1. I was told kids could dress up if their teacher allowed it. Coming from a school in Canada where costumes are NOT allowed (can you imagine teaching a class full of masked and armed children?!), I wanted to play it safe. I didn't want my kids seen as "those crazy foreigners", so kept it simple.  OMG-some of the costumes rivalled Hollywood's best. Our little hairbands, mom's eye-liner whiskers and skeleton t-shirt looked pretty bah humbug...
2. I thought sending Halloween pencils to school, sourced from Canada (thanks Kelly!), would be a unique way for my kids to share their traditions. DING - wrong. They do candy at school, copious amounts, sent from parents. The pencils, at least, were novel: me - "Did they like the pencils?" Jonty - "um, yeah. But mom, only you sent in things that are not junk food". #lifeofadietitianskid

School Sanctioned Decorating: To dress up the school for seasonal celebrations, students take home a photocopied picture, and return it decorated. For November's Sao Martinho festival, the picture was a chestnut.  We coloured in one side with pencil crayons. We stayed in the lines, chose typical colours; I thought it looked nice.  Until we went to the festival and saw everyone else's...we're talking 3-D, Louvre worthy pieces here, using all sorts of materials! Some were even transformed into sewn chestnut pillows!
Come Christmas, I was better prepared, and we too went 3D, reusing materials from our recycling. But again, the effort some (grandmas?) put in, put ours to shame!

What a party! Families send in snacks, and attend from 10-noon to eat and hang out.
Mark noticed he was one of the tallest people there...a novelty for my 5'11 hubby...
See the hanging chestnuts? 

Tables upon tables of homemade cakes, cookies, pop, juice, dried figs, chestnuts, baked sweet potatoes.
Total free-for-all for everyone!

The main entrance to the school. See the chestnuts on the bannister?
Gabi's classroom is the one on the bottom left. Jonty's is up these stairs, to the left.

Birthday Celebrations: Jonty turned 9 last week. He and Gabi had come home a few times and talked about so-and-so's birthday, and how they got treats.  Back home, I usually send some sort of fruit for my kids to celebrate their birthdays at school (blame the dieititian in me who feels you don't need junk to celebrate, and that all kids can use more fruit in their lives). But I didn't want my kids to stick out this one year they are here. So I ordered some finger food dessert from the local bakery that did not require teacher support to hand out, napkins or extra dishes: Jonty's favorite, mini custard tarts.  He took them to school. At pick up, I asked how it went. He said "Mom, you were supposed to come in and deliver the treats. They didn't even sing." Oh, my heart.  It didn't help that the same day, Gabi's classmate had had a birthday.  She shared that both his parents had come into the classroom with a cake, candles, juice, cups, plates, napkins etc, and Parabens was sung. Oi.

Outside the bakery--so excited to share treats with his class

Jonty shares a birthday with my cousin Goncalo
It was a great party!

Roller Hockey Age Group: Back in September, Jonty and I went to check out the 9-11 year old team. When I spoke to the coach, I said Jonty was in grade 4. He asked how old he was, I said 8 (he is a December baby). I was told he belonged in an age group below. I was confused, but went with it. I didn't think to elaborate with his birth month; note: 3 months in, I still haven't figured out at what age kids start school here. Is it their birth year like in Canada?  September-September, like in the USA? Something else? Jonty is younger than some classmates by 1.5 years. Anyhow, long story short, it was discovered about 2 months in that Jonty is too old for the age group, and needs to move up. He is still pretty green, and the thought of leaving his friends behind to go to a more intimidating age group is, understandably, unappealing.  He is going to take the holidays to decide. Tonight he said: "I wish I had never played at all." Oh, stupid mix-up, why didn't I ask more questions?!
Sigh.

He scored two goals at his last game.

Funny we are not taking our own advice: Mark and I lived in Holland for a year, pre-kids, and we always swore, if we did move abroad again, it had to be for at least 2 years. Why? Staying 2 years allows you to figure it all out the first year, and enjoy it to the fullest the second. Back then, we would go away on weekends, come back and see the evidence that we missed some big festival/party in our town...

LOL. Undoubtedly, more MomFails to come, but we are going to be fine. :)