Skip to main content

Sloppy parenting


No pressure, but it's our weekend for the year 1 cat 'Mowser'... again.  I know for many of the parents this is the perfect chance to show just how fun filled and exciting your child's weekend can be.  Given each child gets the cat a couple of times through the year along with the Mowser Book of One-Upmanship, having done Abi last year and Izzy this year, I've run out of original ideas and enthusiasm.  The first time we had him we went to the beach, took Mowser kite surfing (queue pictures of cat strapped to a kite about 50 feet in the air), took him for ice-creams and all sorts of other fun filled activities.  We carefully planned what Abi would write in the book, printed the photo's out and lovingly stuck them in.  By this (our 4th time of hosting Mowser), we just got on with a normal weekend, managed to take only one photo and then printed it out at the last moment while I urged to Izzy "just write something and make it legible".  More examples of sloppy parenting but such is life.  Thank goodness we don't have any more children coming up through the school!

This weekend we braved the flood waters and headed to Taunton for a couple of days.  Glenn pleaded rugby and a bad shoulder (he has torn his ligaments falling off his mountain bike - boys!), so it was just me and the girls.  Given the weather - more torrential rain - we were trying to find something for all of them to do on Saturday but quickly realised it was us we were trying to amuse rather than them.  Wonderfully they are still inseparable when together and immediately they meet up are happy just to be in each others company.  It has changed - they used to roar around and make as much noise as possible - now they alternate between playing together (horses, families, snooker) and just chilling out together.  How lovely it is that despite not seeing each other every week they can be so close.   We will have to start making some changes I guess; last night we were having dinner together and so Ben and Laurie were going to bed at Mum and Dad's before being woken up for the quick drive home.  After lots of discussion they decided that Abi and Laurie would start the night off in one bed and Ben and Izzy in another.  Izzy was very specific - she was only prepared to get into bed with someone who will sleep in "pitch black, door closed!" so luckily Ben was OK with this.  I did have a moment of wondering whether they are getting too old for sleeping in the same bed but decided it should be OK for a while yet. I had to smile when I went up to check on them.  I could hear Abi asking Laurie "Do you snore?", while Izzy was getting Ben to read her "just one more story" before the light went off.  Lovely although I'm not so sure about the comment in the Mowser book - "we saw our cousins and I slept with Ben"...!  When we got home the girls immediately asked if they could go round to see our next door neighbours who have 4 year old twins, Oliver and Isabelle.  So off they went at 2pm and we didn't  really see them again until 5pm - peace!

While all this is going on I'm still on tenterhooks waiting to hear about the job I've been interviewing for.  It's been 2 weeks since the last interview and 10 days since the CFO was "definitely going to ring me tomorrow".  I do feel like the last 9 months have been all about being patient.  First for the house, then for the move, then for the job re-organisation, then the redundancy process and now the job.  I want to know I've secured a new role for lots of reasons, but not least it will mean Abi can develop a new introduction for me... her current one goes along the lines of "This is my Mummy.  She's 40 and has lost her job."  Not much you can say to that is there?!? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Half term

Whatever happened to half term?? It seems to have disappeared in a flash, do doubt partly as I was working having had 3 days off the previous week for Kerrie and Ryan's wedding. The plan was to not have a plan - both girls have exam week coming up and so our major intent was for them to spend at least half an hour a day or so doing a bit of revision. This has sort of worked - we only had one day where I got an irate message from Glenn that Izzy knows 'absolutely nothing' about her maths... we'll see. With half term comes effort grades and if they genuinely know nothing, it's not for a lack of effort. Abi did really well, keeping up her average and getting a 6 (top grade) in French again. Izzy, who we always worry is apt to cruise if allowed, got the first 5.0 average grade we've seen from either of them and 3 6's in French, English and DT - well done Izzy! I tend to assume all the kids work hard but it seems not - according to Abi "all the boys always...
Post a Comment
Read more