Things They Should Tell You When You Move To England, But They Don't

When you have a child in school here, read the school bulletins the day you get them! Otherwise, you might miss something that is happening the next day at school.  Today is St. George's Day in England.   You may have heard of him. 

 

George of George and the Dragon fame.

I missed the memo on when St. George's Day was.  So today when I took LaLa to school, I noticed something was up.  None of the kids were in uniform.  The girls were dressed as Princesses and the boys as superheros (because apparently not many boys have knight outfits).  Awesome.  LaLa immediately starts crying about wanting to be a princess.  Awesome.  So I ended up dropping LaLa off at her classroom and driving back to my house to look for a princesses costume that didn't have a stain down the front.  Then I had to drive back up to the school and drop it off at the office, with the 50p. non-uniform day tax fee.  Crisis averted.  

Another thing that is not in the moving to England required reading is the fact that there is really really really long days here in the spring and summer.  The sun comes up somewhere around 6am (I don't know the exact time because frankly I am not conscious at the time) and it doesn't go down until sometime after 8pm.  My kids have a bedtime of 8pm.  It is pretty strictly enforced during the school week.  Do you know how hard it is to get a kid to bed when they are convinced that it is still day time?  I tell LaLa to get into bed and I get the protest of "Mom it isn't dark outside!  It is still morning time!"  To which I just sigh and say "Get in the bed," because at this point of the day I am just exhausted and I don't have much fight left in me.  I then spend the next hour shouting "Go to bed or your not going to school tomorrow!" from KiKi's bedroom to LaLa because well KiKi sees it is light outside too and well if it isn't dark outside then it means it is play time.  By the time I get both of the girls to sleep I am done.

They really need to start adding sections in the "Moving to England for Americans Manual" on time changes, lesser known holidays, and school communication methods.