3 things I have learned from my kids' school
I think a lot of us are kind of over school right now, and that includes kids, parents, teachers and admin. But despite the senioritis and exhaustion I do want to note three interesting things I have gleaned from my kids' school of late, which is a nice payback for what we put in. (I'm going to include the secrets to enjoyable adult dodgeball as a subscriber-only bonus but email me if you think this is news you can really use, but don't currently have the budget to subscribe):
1-Perimenopause info from someone who knows what they're talking about
Last week I attended an event called "Menopause and Margaritas," hosted by one of the school moms, a gynecologist. (One of the ways our Catholic school's PSO raises money is by hosting various parties/events that you pay to attend.)
The name was a bit cocktail-napkiny but the premise was intriguing: over drinks and appetizers in a private room at a nearby restaurant, Dr. Valerie Allen delivered a tight 30-minute slideshow on what perimenopause is, the symptoms, what can and cannot help the symptoms, and what to watch out for. Specifically, she warned the women there to be circumspect about what products, services and influencers they buy into in this boom market for peri products.
Dr. Allen was funny and charming as she delivered all this intel, and relatable as well. I had an appointment to see my gynecologist the next day by chance, and I felt better prepared for it. (One big takeaway is that if you want to find a health provider credentialed in menopause and midlife women’s health, try the Menopause Society practitioner directory.)
We, the peanut gallery, had just about ten minutes for Q&A before the restaurant needed the private room back, which was perfect — break up the crowd before we all got into sharing our journeys and then second-guessing it later.
Anyway, I have always posited that sex ed should not end with school; if I were in charge, I'd provide continuing health education updates to all Americans for a check-in every decade or so, and this is the kind of thing I had in mind. Also it was nice to gather with other moms in an adult-only environment under the auspices of learning and commiserating and not over a lesson/sport/craft/game.
(With that said, I am also going to talk about grownup dodgeball in Thing 3. Without using any "Dodgeball" movie gifs.)
2-An interesting list of names of old dead people (and angels)
I know only some of you are Catholic, but I bet many of you are secretly fascinated by name choices. These were the names the kids in my son's confirmation class chose for themselves (age 13-14) a few weeks ago, in case you're curious about what names seem to be popular right now and also who the heck some of these saints are. I am a bit proud of the kids for going for it, making some interesting choices for themselves, and giving us such a good spread of people to go "who??" about.
- St. Michael the Archangel (3)
- St. Raphael the Archangel
- St. Catherine of Alexandria (2)
- St. Anne
- St. Francis of Assisi (5)
- St. Teresa of Calcutta
- St. Augustine
- St. Rose of Lima (5)
- St. Jerome
- St. Germaine
- St. Marie Magdalen
- St. Christopher
- St. Monica
- St. Sebastian (4)
- St. Genevieve
- St. Ursula
- St. Brigid
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
- St. Patrick (3)
- St. Teresa of Avila
- St. Patricia
- St. Joshua
- St. Philomena
- St. Benedict
- St. Clare of Assisi (3)
- St. Olivia of Palermo
- St. Vincent DePaul
- St. Dymphna (2) (!!)
- St. Mary (3)
- St. Margaret Mary
- St. John Paul
- St. Therese of Lisieux
- St. Andre
- St. Cecilia
- St. Joan of Arc
3-How to throw a grown-up school dodgeball party that even you will enjoy
A few months ago, I emailed witch Kristen Cox a photo of me wearing this t-shirt she made and sent me. I was on the Red Team for our school's annual grownup dodgeball fundraiser night and this shirt always says how I feel.
If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have done a hard pass on the idea of an adult dodgeball evening, but as a new family to the kids' school, we wanted to get the mix. A witchy pal promised me it was truly fun, so we signed up and it turns out she was right. Then, of course, I got pulled into volunteering to help run it the following year.
Honestly, it's not hard if you have a handful of people to split the work. Even better if they are witchy and you all have a good balance of executive functioning/sense of humor and perspective/being completely overwhelmed most of the time. Kristen asked me how we pulled off such an event, and here is an edited version of what I sent her:
