‘I almost regret that I started this’

Image: Unsplash

A teacher tells Kek Mama what she is experiencing. This time: Miss Viek (39) teaches Nathalie in group six.

Well, the school day is over. Satisfied, I get into my car in front of the schoolyard and drive away carefully – aware of the fact that children are playing in and around the schoolyard. Suddenly I hear a loud bang. I look up in shock and see Nathalie from group seven lying on the floor. She hit the side of my car with her bike. Thank heavens I rode calmly.

To my relief, Nathalie scrambles up. She looks at me with wide eyes in shock. Her attention immediately goes to the car. She rubs the spot she drove into and says, “Sorry, miss, sorry.” “Dog,” I say, “that car is not important, how are you? Did you hurt yourself?” She shakes her head and looks at me with such fear you’d think I’m roaring in front of her. She must have a strict mother, it crosses my mind. Then I study the car. There’s a dent in the back door.

Repair

Nathalie lives near school. I tell her the dent isn’t a big deal because her parents’ insurance pays for the repair. We walk to her house. Nathalie with her bicycle in hand, the front wheel crooked.

“A woman with a cold face appears in the door”

The door is opened by a stout woman with a cold face. I take her to the car. She takes pictures from the side and fires an interrogation at me. Did I drive fast? Where did her daughter come from? Where exactly did I stop? I say I’m glad Nathalie is okay. Frederike – that’s her name – doesn’t seem to be concerned with that. She furiously tells Nathalie to stay indoors for the rest of the week. I almost regret embarking on this exercise.

Read also – ‘I bring up my children strictly and do not believe in the delicate soul of children’ >

Too harsh

Five days later the bell rings. Nathalie is standing in front of the door with a bunch of flowers. With a girlfriend. “She had to pay for them herself, from her piggy bank,” says the girlfriend. “And it cost seventeen euros!” Staying indoors all week was apparently not enough punishment. Is Nathalie not being treated too harshly, I wonder. We have a chat and I ask whether Frederike is strict. Nathalie dives into the defense. “She is strict, but sometimes also sweet,” she says. But the girlfriend says, “She’s too strict.”

“Will Nathalie not be treated too harshly, I wonder”

“Yes guys,” I say, “anywhere you put ‘too’ for is not good: too strict, cycling too fast. Fortunately, Nathalie’s mother is sweet too, and that’s the most important thing. We will ask her if she agrees that the three of us go get an ice cream.”

Pamper

The next day I talk to Frederike when she is taking Nathalie’s little brother to school. When I tell her how beautiful the flowers look, I see a twitch of a smile on her face for the first time. At the beginning of the conversation, she says about the ice creams: “We’ll see.” After emphasizing that she thinks children should feel or they’ll never learn, and I’ve listened meekly, she allows the ice creams. These are going to be the biggest ice creams the kids have ever seen, I think, watching her in amazement. Too big!

This article appears in Kek Mama 11-2022.

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