Clowns are Scary!

Yesterday evening, as she was getting into bed, Amélie suddenly announced that she HAD to have a clown outfit for school today. No no no no no! I cannot make a clown outfit in an hour without any warning or any materials or… And anyway, her teacher would surely have said something. Right? No no, Amélie must been confused… But she seemed so adamant, so convinced that she absolutely had to go to school as a clown. She was distraught. It took me nearly an hour to comfort her and to convince her that I didn’t need to make a clown outfit that very moment. Phew, thought I. That was close. She’ll forget all about it by morning… “Mama, where’s my clown outfit?” These were the first words out of her mouth this morning. She hadn’t even opened her eyes yet!  And we were off again. “Amélie – you do not need a clown outfit for today!” – “Yes. I. DO! Madame Sandrine said it’s clown day today! All my friends will have clown outfits!” and so on and so on… I went from confident (no way – someone would have told us) to a complete wreck (I am the worst mother in the world! My daughter will be the only one in her class without a clown outfit!). But it was too late by then to do anything about it so we got her dressed (with some difficulty) and took her to school. I was very apprehensive… But… NO CLOWN OUTFITS! Not one to be seen. Not anywhere! Yes! Not a terrible mother after all. But I was traumatised enough (pathetic, I know) to seek out her teacher for a chat. It turns out they had been drawing clowns yesterday and talking about how they would dress up for Carnaval next week. I shall repeat that: next week! Can you imagine if she had turned up with full face-makeup and over-sized shoes today?! I would have felt very very silly indeed and the teachers would finally have had their proof that I was completely insane. Haha! Anyway, Amélie was still keen this evening so we practiced the face-paints when we got home. You know, just to make sure we know what we’re doing for NEXT WEEK.

Clowns are scary. Even the sweet little ones.