The battle of the sexes rears its ugly head yet again. Parents are a big part of the Marlborough community, and we love them for all the work they do. Every Marlborough parent is automatically a member of the Parents’ Association, but of course some are more active than oth- ers. Approximately 50-75 mothers and 5 fathers consistently show up to Parents’ Association meetings. Then, about 40 fathers show up to the separately held Father’s Group meetings. All told, parents spend an av- erage of 15,000 hours a year volunteering at the School, doing every- thing from tour guiding to event planning. Usually, there is a paucity of father-daughter events, but mother-daughter events seem to happen all the time. But this year, the Father’s Group has tried to step up its game, planning more events and being more involved with the students. So, how do our mother-centric and father-centric activities stack up?
| Expected Attire | Striped footie pajamas | Kentucky Derby-style hats with seersucker dresses and haughty attitudes |
| Pretentious activity | tea-sipping and scone-nibbling | horse race-watching |
| Events at which parents sing | Junior-Mother Pajama Breakfast | Father-Daughter Picnic |
| Tears shed? | Let’s just say waterproof mascara is a must. | rarely |
| Chances of leaving with more money than you came | slim (unless you’re into pocket picking). | high (unless you pick the horse based on its name…which you will). |
| Only at Marlborough… | …do you find moms in the ARC futilely trying to shelve books in 6-inch stilettos. | …would you find dads on their iPads checking out horse stats (but this might just be my dad). |
| Affiliated parent of Sophia ’14 | Mrs. Erin Berman planned the 10th Grade Mother-Daughter Valentine’s Day lunch
“I’m an equal opportunity kind of gal and believe in gender equity in all things, especially when parenting and in volunteering at your children’s school!” |
Dr. Andrew Berman planned Career Day
“The dads don’t really have the opportunity to interact with the girls who aren’t our own daughters, but we all have a wide breadth of experience we’d like to share. |
| Attendance | Mandatory | Optional |
| Possible drawbacks | Holding these events during School means girls could be distracted thinking about their math test next period | “Almost all of the mother-daughter events are on campus, but the father’s events, like the Day at the races, are far away. Also, the mothers’ events are all really personal and the fathers’ seem more open and public”
-Shannon ’13 |
