Friday, 26 April 2013

Mistaken identity

It's the school holidays. With a public holiday falling in the middle of it yesterday, I imagine there are many families going away for a short break this weekend or even a longer holiday. A colleague’s teenage son is away on a three-week school trip to Paris and Nice. That’s a HUGE deal when you live on the other side of the world. We talked about whether he realised what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this is for him at this age (well, it would have been for us when we were his age) but it’s the norm in some communities, especially as travel is becoming increasingly accessible for some.

Another colleague, Sara, packed up her daughters earlier this week and sent them to stay with their grandmother in New Plymouth while she works. (She is taking leave next week to be with them.) Sara worried that her girls probably wouldn’t have any exotic holiday stories to tell once they got back to school, especially considering that their school is in quite an affluent area. We reassured her that at 5 and 6 years of age, New Plymouth would be plenty exotic enough for them, until she told us what happened after the last school holidays ...

Sara's then 5-year-old and a friend were having a play date, with her little friend's mother in tow. Here's how the conversation went:
Friend's mother: Where did you go to for the holidays?
Little friend: We went to Tahiti!
Daughter: So did we!!
Little friend: Wow!
Friend’s mother (to Sara): Where did you stay?
Daughter: We stayed at our cousins’ place.
Friend’s mother [suspiciously]: Your cousins live in Tahiti? Really?
Daughter: Yeah! Oh. No, no. That’s right. We went to Titahi Bay. That's where our cousins live.
Sara [wanting to fall through the floor]: *gulp* 
Bless!
Not quite

2 comments:

KezUnprepared said...

Aww I remember feeling mad at my parents because they always took us to obscure, often remote, places during the school holidays as we explored and learnt about Australia's countryside. All my friends would be all like, "We went to the zoo/city/cool holiday spot/theme park..." etc.
No-one would have a clue where we'd been.
Now that I'm older I feel glad that I know my country so well, even though I do admit I wish I could have been overseas more before having a child.
Oh, well - there's still time for that :)
Sara's daughter sounds adorable and you gotta love that innocence :)

Nikki said...

Haha if only Tahiti was so close.