NEW SCHOOL, OLD SCHOOL

Tom's started a new school and I'm told 'big school' has less chance of playground politics because parents have less opportunity to mix with each other - although I have a coffee morning with the new parents this Thursday which I think is an annual event so I don't think that will cause too many issues.   Tom did well at the previous school, getting a drama and art scholarship for which his teachers should take all the credit as well as Tom (teachers thank you for your support in calling Tom's dad to tell him how important extra curricular stuff was).  Of course his dabble dad (dabbles at parenthood) is now taking the credit for his son's success but I'm told this is common. The child does the work, the teacher does the work, the mother does the work and then when the kids reach teenage years and have something the dads can relate to they appear to become all fatherly forgetting the past twelve or so years when their kids bored them witless.  I don't think Tom's dad is alone in this, I just think he's an example of the behaviour.   At the speech day, the dads all stood around patting themselves on the back for the success of their son's, including Tom's, the gracious ones (and ironically the ones who had genuinely done the most) conceding that their wives had done all the work. There were a few of them but not many.    Because as far as men are concerned playground politics is like office politics. Men who talk good parenting rarely practice it. Those who do, just get on with it.  I'm told it was always the way.