Skip to main content

Mid week rant

It's not often I have a rant on here but I will because I want to look back in years to come and either congratulate myself on being right, or laugh at myself for being so wrong.

Yesterday I picked up the girls from school - not a normal occurrence on any day and rare for a Thursday. I got chatting to one of the Mums who I know reasonably well and she asked whether I would be going to the Year 4 drinks later. I replied no because I have to be in London this morning for a client pitch and so it's an early night for me. She then complimented me that unlike some working parents I don't have a phone permanently attached to me - I seem to be able to separate work from home. I'm clearly not perfect and there are far too many occasions where I'm juggling kids / friends / phone / emails etc but I do try and be mindful of where to draw the line. She then started to say her husband is particularly bad at this and has his phone with him even at the dinner table. I said our rule is no IPads at the table when we are eating, but then said the girls are allowed 10 minutes before school as long as they are washed, dressed, hair brushed and ready to go. We got chatting about TV - I said of course they hardly watch TV - it's all on demand these days, but I'm OK with the kind of things they watch for the most part. Currently it's Victorian Slum - no bad thing to learn about.  Glenn then said Abi loves to watch One Man and his Dog and her response - "why, that's so boring!"

And so to my rant... When I said "No, it's lovely that she wants to watch something so calm and anyway, it's what she currently wants to do when she's older", this Mum was horrified! "Don't you want her to be a doctor or something that pays well?" When I said "I want her to be happy - happy is more important than rich" she then dropped the bombshell of "so why are you wasting your time with private schooling?!?"

Luckily at this point the kids came out of school and I didn't have to explain all the reasons I choose a small, independent, balanced school for my girls, where they could develop a love of learning for the sake of building knowledge and being informed, a sense of curiosity and the confidence to go out into the world and do what makes them happy. Obviously they know they'll need to make ends meet (Izzy told me last night she will write books and sell them to pay for her horses and more books to read!), but that doesn't mean they need to live life at the crazy pace every over achiever I know does. Would I encourage them to do something that involves 4 hours of commuting every day - NO! Once you're in that cycle it's hard to get out again.

Ho hum, rant over. Abi is loving the idea that she could one day be a shepherdess. Who cares at this stage whether she eventually does or not. I wanted to own a stationery shop (lots of lovely coloured paper and pens!) - look what happened to me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All about Izzy

This weekend has mainly been about Izzy, mostly because Abi has been off riding again and so we've hardly seen her. This has its pros and cons - on the one hand Izzy gets lots of attention and the choice of what to do. On the other she misses Abi and when big sister arrives home we have the inevitable few hours of resettling which seems to involve tears as a matter of course. I did have a moment of despair this evening when I looked across to the table just before Sunday dinner - normally a happy time - to see both of them, heads on arms, holding back tears. Luckily a bit of food and a game of 20 questions to share what everybody had enjoyed about their weekend and we kind of managed to get back on track by dessert. When asked what she wanted to do, Izzy immediately shouted "Jo Jo" so my task was to sort out a visit with Jo, the boys and Ellie. No matter how much time passes they still love to see each other and the first task is always the same. Edward and Izzy have t...
Post a Comment
Read more