Queen of Rambles

Annica called today. It’s the first time I’ve talked to her in a week so that meant she thought she had to tell me a week’s worth of problems. I actually cut her off after about a half hour of conversation. I just couldn’t stand it. I was also very terse and honest. I usually try to see her viewpoint and not treat her like a total idiot, but today I let down all my socially implemented politeness guards and spoke the truth. She seemed shocked.

The conversation started with a disgusted declaration that “the fucking Russian child can read Swedish”. The Russian girl (I think I was calling her Anastasia) is 5 and a half, just six months younger than Annica’s oldest girl. Neither of them attend any form of school, but Anastasia’s mother (Natasha) works with her every night to make sure she can read. She’s read Russian for at least a year now. I don’t find anything shocking or disgusting about a five year old reading. I know not every five year old has that ability, but it’s not unusual either. Annica expected me to recoil in horror and bitch about the overzealousness of Russian parents. Instead, I just said “So? She’s almost six.” Definitely not the answer she was looking for.

She tried another tactic. “What the hell am I supposed to do with her? Her mother says she’s bored?’

I have an answer for everything of course, since I’m so old and wise. “You have tons of children’s books. Give her a book to read.”

Oh no. This can’t be done. It would make Alva jealous and we can’t have that.

“Then give the girl a book to read and teach Alva how to read at the same time.”

No, no, no. She’s not a teacher. She’s not supposed to teach her children anything. That’s up to trained professionals.

I don’t understand that attitude. I will never understand that attitude. If I had a five year old daughter who expressed an interest and aptitude in reading I would teach her. I won’t be one of those crazy parents who tries to teach their babies Japanese in the womb, but I will do my damndest to give my kids every advantage. I’m not relying on overworked, underpaid professionals to do everything for my kids.

Then there was the issue of playing outside. Natasha wants Anastasia to play outside for two hours every morning. This means she wants Annica outside the moment she arrives. The problem is that she doesn’t arrive at a consistent time. Some days she gets there at 9 am, some days he doesn’t show up till 10:30 am. This means Annica gets her girls out the door by 9 but if the Russians are late the girls get cold and are ready to go inside. It takes her about 20 minutes to get the girls ready, and Natasha freaks out if Anastasia has to stand in the hallway wearing her winter duds while the process is complete. I came up with a very simple solution: Natasha should call Annica about 10 minutes before leaving the house. Easy peasy?

Of course not. It would make Annica feel “stupid” to request such a thing. I personally can’t see how that could make a person feel stupid, but I guess I don’t live the life of a constant worrier.

There was much more she wanted to discuss, but I told her I had to go. I couldn’t bear listening to her non-sense anymore and I’m still very angry and upset about her revelation last week. I really don’t know how to cut off a friend though. At least we are only in this hell hole for one more month.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2003 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.