Happy Chinese new year!!! – and there is the rub. Our daughter Maeve – the elemental force of day to day life these days – comes home and announces that she is a ‘Rat’ and is very proud of it. Rat – what do you mean ‘Rat’? Maeve attends the excellent ‘educate together school’ in Donabate and as part of their multi-cultural view of education they have been learning about the Lunar New Year which is also known as the ‘Chinese New Year’ despite being common across many cultures and areas of Asia.

As part of this it was explained to Maeve by ‘teacher’ (a nice young lass) that based on her birthday (Jan 16 2008) Maeve was a ‘rat’; No problem there you might think – according to Chinese mythology Rats have many positive characteristics. The problem was though Maeve was told by Teacher she was a ‘Rat’ where as in reality she is a ‘Pig’. Maeve was born in the year of the Pig (2007-2008) rather than the year of the Rat (2008-2009) and because Teacher told her she is a ‘Rat’ rather than a ‘Pig’ Maeve won’t accept what I am saying – even though I have doubled checked it.

Meeting Teacher tomorrow (as I do most mornings recently) is going to ‘interesting’. How do I tell her that she was ‘wrong’ and how will she tell Maeve? As the chinese say ‘we live in Interesting times’.

Before you ask … I am a ‘Dragon’ and good lady wife is a ‘Pig’.

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