A typical school day without mother

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:36:30 +0000

By Edna Kazonga

On the 14th of May, we celebrated Mother’s Day and most mothers were ‘spoilt’ in one way or the other. Cakes, cards, roses, chocolates and lovely messages were among the common gifts to mothers and the motive behind was to physically show appreciation to mothers for what they are. Thank you everyone I was one of the “spoilees” though some messages on WhatsApp were exaggerated which is okay, we don’t need to take things seriously all the time. Now here is what happened somewhere when mother was away from home for a short time, and I mean a short time on a typical school day.

What do mothers do?

Mother is a CEO of a company and she is away from home attending to important issues concerning her company. Daddy has promised to take care of their two children, Dali, 6 years old and Nana, 3 years old. Grandma Gogo, a sweet mother in–law, has been brought in just to give moral support to the maid. It is Monday and the two children have to go to school but wait, they don’t just go to school, mother wakes them up (alarm clock) as early as 0600hrs to bathe them, feed them and dress them up. She even drives them to school (chauffer) in time for class. Worse still, she checks the uniforms, socks, shoes, school bags and shoes and makes available what she will put in the snack boxes, all this is done the night before (planning Officer). Just what substance is mother made of and what time does she sleep if at all she sleeps?

Daddy becomes Mother

First of all, Daddy forgot to wake up the children and it is now 0700hrs and grandma Gogo is snoring, please don’t blame her she is over 80years old! It dawns on Daddy that mother is away, OOPS! He rushes to the kids bedroom and wakes the children up but they pull back their blankets and scream as loudly as possible. What happened, how does mother wake them up? Is Daddy too rough maybe? Daddy lifts Nana and heads for the bathroom, there is no time for a proper bath, just washing the face, this will be easy according to Daddy’s thoughts. Nana screams on top of her voice. How does mother wash her face? Oh, the water is too cold for the child, God forgive Daddy!

At 6 years of age, Dali is able to take care of himself because mother already taught him how to do it. Now let’s go back to Nana and Daddy and see how they are fairing. After the ‘shortcut’ of a bath, Daddy started looking for the uniform, shoes, socks and school bag. After a while he managed to dress the little girl, but no, the socks are different! It’s ok they are both white socks who will notice that they have different designs? What remains now is to take the children to school but Dali screams “Daddy my snack box….and juice” That was easy according to daddy as he hurriedly shoved some pieces of buttered bread into the snack box. The little ones protested and insisted that “mummy adds a thingy in the snack box….” Oh my, what is this thingy that mother puts in the snack box? It is now 0730hrs and they really have to go to school. Daddy drives the two children who have tears in their eyes to school. Teacher comes out to receive the children and in 5 seconds calms them down. That is unfair because Daddy has tried everything and the children were still crying but it took teacher only 5 seconds to cheer the children up. I guess teacher is also a mother.

At School

Little Nana went straight back to sleep while still in the teacher’s arms. That was unusual because as soon as they reach school she dashes to her classroom to pick up toys to play with and rarely falls asleep. Let us find out why little Nana failed to keep awake. It could be that little Nana’s body was used to a warm bath at 0600hrs followed by a plate of warm delicious porridge as mama used to make. Perhaps the one hour delay in wake up time did not go well with Nana’s system and the little brain got all disturbed and mixed up. The lack of a proper warm bath is also something else. Anyway let Nana sleep, she is only in Kindergarten.

Dali on the other hand was wide awake and seemed to be enjoying himself. Teacher went round to collect the Home Work. She had to literally check from the children’s backpacks for the Homework book perhaps because the children were too young to responsibly take out their books. Teacher was strict with her Homework Policy. She wanted the homework done with proof of parent’s supervision, meaning the parent should comment and sign on the Homework page. It was strange to find Dali’s Homework book unattended to, no comments and no signature from the parents, what happened? Well, mother is the one who helps the children with the Homework but this time she is away. So next time when mother is away, Daddy should check the children’s school bags to see if they have homework, yes, that is what mother does every single day.

School Pick Up

It is mother who picks up children from school every single day but she is away this time. Not to worry I think Daddy will work out something. Daddy failed to create time to pick up the children from school because he had something like a “Board Meeting” so he arranged with his nephew fondly known as Uncle T by the children to pick them up. Off went Uncle T to pick up the children from school but was sent away because the school management did not recognise him due to lack of evidence that he was sent by the children’s father. School management opted to take care of the children until Uncle T showed proof from the Parents. The school waited patiently for a call from the parents on the known numbers to authorise the release of the children to Uncle T but in vain. How does mother do these things? She is constantly in touch with the teachers in case of change of usual routine or programme to dispel suspicion.

Daddy’s phone was constantly off as Uncle T and teacher tried desperately to phone him to explain that the school management did not recognise him. Let us see what is happening to grandma Gogo at home.

At Home

It is now 1830hrs and the children are nowhere to be seen. The maid and Grandma Gogo start panicking. Usually the maid waits for the children who are dropped home by their mother at 1530hrs as she goes back to work. The maid gives the children a warm snack, bathes them and washes their uniforms. Thank you, dear maid for taking care of the children. Their mother is always back home by 1730hrs and the maid then knocks off but today the story is different, the children are not home yet. Meanwhile, Grandma is quick to conclude that her sweet daughter in-law has run away with the children. It is my prayer that Grandma Gogo will calm down but no, she had sneaked out and gone to report a case of stolen children at a nearby police post. A statement was recorded and the sad news of missing children was announced at a local radio station immediately with the names of the children being emphasised. Remember what I said before, forgive Grandma Gogo she is in her 80s.

Embarrassing

The police decided to check on the school as part of their investigations and guess what! Little Nana was fast asleep in teacher’s arms while Dali was busy eating some delicious supper which the teacher prepared for him. This teacher must be a mother too as we said earlier on. Now who will pay for the teachers extra hours? I am talking about overtime.

Ok let us go back to the main issue. The police are about to charge poor Gogo of something like ‘false Alarm’.

Meanwhile…

Daddy finally sees countless missed calls from Uncle T and suspects that something was amiss. He abandons the ‘Board meeting’ and rushes home only to find the children safely tucked in their beds with mother back home but not chatting with Grandma Gogo. Uncle T has gone back to his home and mother had to abandon her work and come back home….she shall not be demoted because it was not her fault. Daddy looks confused, why is mother back and why isn’t Gogo chatting? Worse still, why was Uncle T calling him so many times? Daddy’s phone rung and it was Nana’s teacher who wanted a refund for what she used for the children’s snack and supper plus Taxi money to take her home since it was late and her husband was calling her constantly because her little baby (6 months old) was crying.

Confusion

Daddy is now totally confused because he doesn’t understand what Nana’s teacher is talking about. Mother says ask Gogo and Grandma says ask your wife. The maid has no time to explain as she asks Daddy for money for a cab to rush home because her baby was still breastfeeding, so the maid is also a mother just like Nana’s teacher. Since Grandma Gogo is Daddy’s mother, we have 4 disappointed mothers in one day. I wonder who to blame! Really, who is to blame? I will never know.