‘I’m struggling to make friends with the mums at the school gates – how can I find my crew?’
telegraph.co.uk– Left OutThe school gates are strange and political places. The soundtrack of squawking children and the wallpaper of colourful art projects and rattling charity buckets cons us all into thinking that they are cosy places, but they are riddled with anxieties and hierarchies and neurosis.
Do not, for one second, think you are alone in worrying about how your school relationships are going.There is an illusion, perpetrated since time immemorial, that when your child starts a new school, you will be served up a ripe, fizzing new social life made up of super-fun, liked-minded people.
It’s a bit like what they say about the 1960s: there were three people locked in a room somewhere getting stoned and rolling around in free love while the rest of the population read about it in the papers and wondered where they might find the key.
But there is so much volume at the school gates. So much gossip and so many plans shrieked across the road as people are walking away. “We must try that new coffee place… I’ll text you about Wednesday night… Let’s aim for Friday morning tennis…” It can sometimes feel as though you, yourself, are back in the playground, hopping from foot to foot, waiting to see if you will be picked last for the netball team.
Read more on telegraph.co.uk
