exam frenzy

Teh son has mock exams on right now (for them as lives in t'UK: mock GCSEs) and the entire household has gone into a frenzy of stress and preparation. One parent is downloading past exam papers from the examination board website; the other parent is quizzing teh son on the French conditional / the question whether or not all polymers occur in nature / the use of the crumhorn in English plainchant / metaphors in The Old Man and the Sea, or the percentage of unemployed Germans in 1933. Meanwhile, teh son is either a) staring at us with plaintive doggie 'help me' eyes, or b) stomping round in a fury, telling us we are idiots and haven't got a clue. When these two weeks are over, the entire family will be flat on the floor with exhaustion. T'younger son is totally sidelined and makes pathetic stabs at claiming our collective attention by reciting the conjugations of 'avoir' and 'être'.

The middle classes, eh? Bildungsbürgertum run riot.