Conferences, en step-masse, confuse even the most attentive teachers. My daughter's grade-school class was once charged with drawing and cutting out a paper portrait of each family member, joining them with yarn, and hanging them from the ceiling over their desks. On Open House night, Gretchen's family string was easy to pick out - 13 members long, it spilled over her desk, hit the floor, and continued across the room to the gerbil cage. Some of the other students helped her draw. We had a little assembly line.
Social functions present unique challenges.
I didn't mean to do this. I spent my formative years, plus a few, in Catholic school, and always thought I'd marry one guy and stay with him forever. Instead of that tidy little life, I got to live the messy, larger one. But it hasn't been a disadvantage, really. I have three remarkable, kind, funny kids, and not an ax murderer among 'em.