A "This"Kid or a "That" Kid

[Anonymous]

I met one of those annoying moms the other day (you know the type) and we were chatting about our kids' schools. Her kids are older than mine so she was very into the process of choosing a schools for the middle/ high school years. She kept using phrases that stuck with me and I wanted to ask if anyone else is familiar with this terminology.

It seemed to me that she was talking about kids (hers and others) as though they are a packaged product... the phrases were things like "a Sidwell kid" or a "GDS kid" or a "Bullis kid" or even a "public school kid." What, exactly, does that mean? She seemed to me to be implying that each of these schools is some perfect, distinctly-different institution that only takes/ wants a certain "type" and it is up to us, the parents, to assess our darlings and figure out which box our kids fit into. Heaven forbid, I guess, that your child has maybe a combination of traits or a personality of his/ her own that does not match up with one of these? I understand about the obvious differences... some kids do better at single sex, for example, or some people want a religious tone to their education -- but this seemed even a step beyond that. Why would a school want to be so pigeonholed into a "type?" Whatever happened to a balance??

Frankly, it all sounded like a bunch of BS to me, but then I'm fairly new at this so maybe I'm missing something?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like narrow-minded BS to me too.

[Anonymous]

Yuck! Poor you! People like that push all of my buttons.

While I was reading this I was thinking of that Cheetos commercial where the regular woman wipes her hands on the back of the overbearing mom's white jacket.

[Anonymous]

Poor OP - don't listen to this stuff or you will drive yourself crazy.

[Anonymous]

It's a bunch of BS. She doesn't know what she's talking about. I've lived here for 30 years, and there are all kinds of kids at all kinds of schools. Don't fall for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yuck! Poor you! People like that push all of my buttons.

While I was reading this I was thinking of that Cheetos commercial where the regular woman wipes her hands on the back of the overbearing mom's white jacket.

YES!!!! I told my husband that the snooty mom reminded me of some of our neighbors!

[Anonymous]

Bring a bag of cheetos in case you see her again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for articulating something I've felt and seethed about for years. Don't let anybody tell you to pigeonhole your kids. Our job as parents is to help them resist doing that to themselves and to each other. And, BTW, my kid is at Sidwell in the upper school, and there are many different kinds of kids who flourish there

[Anonymous]

OP, the snooty mom you describe is most definitely pretentious. I wish I could also say she is rare, but sadly, that is not so. I agree with PP whole-heartedly ... the best schools in this area work hard to help kids view themselves as unique individuals who are worthy no matter what their strengths, interests, backgrounds, and aspirations. You can see what an uphill battle this can be given some of the households these kids come from!!! But the admissions folks work hard to ensure that each class includes all sorts of kids to help facilitate that very aspect of learning to respect oneself AND others. Therefore, there is no such thing as a "Sidwell kid" or a "GDS kid" ... there parents on the other hand, are much harder to "counsel out"!!!

[Anonymous]

... their parents ...

Sorry about that ... please don't Cheetoh me!!!