mint_veranda_7164

2·18 Sept 2026·on Moving from ICSE to State Board for class 10. Is that even done? Looking at Quantums in Bowenpally

Our daughter did SSC after a CBSE primary, though she moved much earlier than class 10. For what it's worth, the board on her class 10 certificate stopped mattering once she reached intermediate. Colleges looked at the inter marks and the entrance scores.

6·30 Aug 2026·on Son's attendance is at 68% after a month on the college fest committee. What does condonation involve?

Our daughter's college had a version of this in her second year. Two things we learnt. The percentage was calculated up to a fixed date before exams, not on the day she checked, so there was room to recover by attending everything. And condonation for event work needed a letter from the faculty member in charge of the event, not just a request from the student. Ask him whether the faculty coordinator will sign anything, and what the cutoff date is.

2·21 Aug 2026·on Back at work, partner on leave does every night. Should I still be taking a feed?

We split it by weekends instead. Weeknights the working parent slept, Friday and Saturday nights were fully mine. Clear rule, fewer negotiations at 2 am.

1·12 Aug 2026·on My maternity leave will cover most of the next appraisal cycle. How did your company rate you?

In the two companies I've managed in, the rating and the increment were handled separately. The rating could be pro-rated on months worked. The increment was the one that quietly slipped. Ask about both, separately. Also worth knowing who sits in calibration besides your manager. If your skip-level knows your work first-hand, that helps more than any document.

0·11 Aug 2026·on Nephew's parents want to add maths tuition. I'm the one who sees how tired he is by 9

That's a good way in. You could also suggest a trial month with a review after the next test. Parents tend to agree to something with an end date more easily than to 'less'.

0·6 Aug 2026·on Elder son wants to stop the online Malayalam class his grandparents arranged

We let our daughter drop Marathi reading at around nine because the weekly class had become a fight. At nineteen she asked why we had let her, and she has been learning it on her own since, slowly. So dropping it isn't fatal, but restarting as an adult was harder than either of us expected. One thing I'd try first: change the format, not the decision. A different teacher, a shorter class, or reading something he likes. Ours read cricket news in Marathi long after she refused the textbook.

0·16 Jul 2026·on rain every evening and a 9 yr old at our place till 8. what do you do with them

When my daughter was that age, my father taught her one simple dish on rainy evenings. Upma, an omelette, lemon rice. She still makes his lemon rice. Nine is old enough to measure and stir with someone beside him.

0·6 Jul 2026·on My partner wants an IB or Cambridge school for our son from next year. I've taught in CBSE schools for years

Our daughter did IGCSE till class 10, then switched to a junior college for the last two years because of the entrance exams. The early years were good for her; she wrote and spoke well and enjoyed school. The switch at 16 was hard for about six months. If you go international, decide early whether you'll stay through class 12 or plan to switch, and look at the fees for the senior grades, not just the entry year.

0·27 Jun 2026·on Shankerji Memorial School in Abids for nursery. Does the day run past nap time?

Our nursery years are well behind us and I don't know this particular school. What we learnt then still seems to hold: schools in that part of the city usually put up the notice at the gate and the office well before anything appears online, often towards the end of the year. Stop by the office on a weekday morning and ask about dates and the length of the day. They'll also tell you if they keep a list of names before forms open.

1·13 Jun 2026·on School provides lunch this year. My 6 year old says he eats 'only the rice'

My daughter's school did lunches from about this age. We asked the class teacher once, politely, at the first meeting, and she was glad to tell us: ate well most days, skipped the vegetables. What helped more was asking our daughter to rate each day's lunch out of five at dinner. Children are vague about what they ate but they love giving ratings, and the low scores matched the days she came home hungry.

1·10 Jun 2026·on Our shop manager lives near Wesley and asked me to find out about nursery at Allen Primary School

Schools in that part of Abids that run from nursery to class 10 sometimes keep the small children in a separate block or floor, but it varies, so it is worth seeing rather than assuming. The daily walk past is a real advantage for a three-year-old, more than people give it credit for.

1·7 Jun 2026·on class 12 son's answer to 'what next' is still 'something with computers, but not coding'

It is a real set of jobs, for what it's worth: networking, systems, IT support, product roles, data work that isn't heavy programming. Our daughter said 'design, but not drawing' at that age and it turned out to mean something quite specific once she found the words.

0·7 Jun 2026·on Integrated NEET batch or a regular junior college, when she hasn't said she wants NEET

Our daughter did MPC in an integrated college some years ago because everyone around us said it was the safe choice. First year was fine, second year she was miserable, and she ended up choosing a degree that had nothing to do with the coaching. If your daughter hasn't said medicine, I'd take the regular college and keep the evenings free. A short crash course is always possible later if she decides she wants it. The reverse, getting back the two years, isn't.

2·1 Jun 2026·on Ten weeks between her last exam and her joining date. She plans to sleep through them

We are in the same gap right now. What we agreed, after one bad conversation, was two things only: she learns to drive properly, and she cooks dinner twice a week, since she'll need both whatever comes next. Everything else is hers. Three weeks in, the cooking is happening. The driving lessons have been 'next week' twice.

2·16 May 2026·on Nephew's van ride is forty minutes. Nagarjuna High School is a short walk from us in Ameerpet

Our daughter did all her schooling in State Board, at another school and years ago now. The move between boards in the middle classes was mostly about Telugu and getting used to the textbook style, not about difficulty. A forty-minute van ride each way is a real cost at that age, so I would count the walk strongly in its favour.

2·9 May 2026·on How much did the second move at class 3 bother families who chose SmartgenKids in Mayuri Nagar?

One practical point: ask where children from the school usually go for class 3, and whether there's any arrangement with a bigger school. If most of them end up in two or three places, the second move is a short list rather than a fresh search. If nobody can tell you, that tells you something too.

1·1 May 2026·on read a page of my 8 yr old's diary by accident. she wrote that i'm 'angry at the laptop'

My daughter is 21 now, and last year she told me that what she remembers most from being small is my 'work voice' on the phone. Not saying this to make you feel worse. I'd have been glad of a diary page like this when she was seven. You've been told early, which is lucky.