Our oldest daughter had her last day of the school year this last week. It is has been a great year for her, she has had faced down challenges and succeeded and she has down well at school as well. There is much for a father to be proud of! Just as a little aside, the youngest is also doing great, but she is only 1, so her achievements are significantly different!

Background

Just as a little background, we send her to her a school that is not so close by but is a great school. In the Netherlands, it is common to send your child to a school that is within easy walking or biking distance. When we chose our school, we used to live closer (but still not in the easy walking/biking range), but when we bought our house, we had to move a bit further away to have an affordable mortgage for the space that we wanted. This meant that we are now a 25 minutes car ride away from the school, which is completely unbelievable for the other parents when we tell them where we live.

However, we did choose the school because it is a great school, and the fact that it is in a rich neighbourhood helps (in an ideal world, it wouldn't, but it does).... and so we thought, that in Australia, a 25 minute car ride to school would be on the lower end anyway, and that would be the sacrifice that we would make for our child to be able to go to a really very good basisschool.

A touch of sadness

We don't often feel too heavily the difference in social class/wealth between us and the other parents. I mean, there are markers, the dress, the different professions, the cars and these sort of things, but those don't mean too much to a 6 year old, it's more things that we notice as adults. However, we did see a little thing rear up today.

After we picked her up from the last day of school, she was a little sad. We thought initially that it was something to do with her leaving the teachers that had been with her for the last two and a half years, who she had loved and the teachers had also enjoyed having her in the class.

Instead, it was because some of her friends were talking about where they were going for the summer holiday seasons, and some of them were going to some seriously glamorous places for a long time. In comparison, we are going to drive to England for a week, which I think is also going to be pretty nice!

However, it was the first time that I think that she noticed a difference though, and we explained to her that we just don't have the capacity to live near the school, go on huge world wide vacations or things like that. Instead, we are happy also doing what we are doing, and we shouldn't be comparing. In any case, how many of her classmates can say that they've ever been to Australia! A few times!

It's not that she was jealous, just sad, but it passed quickly. She is such an understanding little girl, it always surprises me... but it did make me feel a little sad. But that said, I can't take her around the world every few months, but we are a happy family (so far!).

A happy girl!

...and a proud Dad!

Well, her little sister was at daycare, and so we took the opportunity to give her a present that we had been saving up for this day! She loves LEGO, since she was little she would read the instruction manuals like a story book, and now that she is 6, she will construct houses and stuff according to the manual in much less time than we expect!

So, we had a great gift for her. A congratulations for completing her Swimming Diploma, her Piano Diploma, a ballet class performance and moving into the Middlebouw (the serious part of the primary (basis) school). In addition, to being a well-behaved daughter who is such a great sister to her little sister.

A huge LEGO friends boat!

She loved it and wanted to sit down and build the whole thing straight away! I could have sat there and watched, but I'm sure it would be too embarrassing to have a proud father just sitting there... but I did pop down every now and then to see how the construction was going!