Just another day

Just another day in Castle Aginoth. Up at 6am (well up at 12.30, 4.30 & 5.30. I know LMD doesn't really need all thoses feeds, but its easier to feed her & go back to sleep than put the effort into changing her habits. I'll find a quiet week to do it in one day, I promise). Mr A goes off to work, so LM Blond wakes up, & asks Mstr A to come & play.

I was organised enough to sort out Mstr A's school bags yesterday, so it's just a matter of finding his new uniform, giving him a (unheeded) lecture on looking after his new stuff, and how he's one of the grown up ones now (he's in year 1) & has to watch out for & help the little ones, feed & dress all three little darlings, & head off to school. a short walk later (Yes, we do walk to school, there are very few primary school age children in the UK who live more than a 20min walk to school, but only 1 in 10 walk there. And we spend £millions trying to work out why our children are becomming fatter, more sedentary, asthmatic, diabetic, dependant on their parents......), & we wave bye bye to Mstr A.

Horaay

A slow stroll into town to post some ebay items, & pay in LM Blonds birthday money, picking up a few essential items in the local supermarket & come home for a quiet day catching up on admin. £pm comes very quickly, and it's back to school to collect Mstr A, then back down to town to attend a trail stagecoach session. This comapany teaches drama, singing & dance & I thought it might be a good outlet for Mstr A. He did seem to enjoy it, behaving really well for the first half, and kind of doing as he was told even in the boring singing bit (he does have difficulty joining in with group activities). He came away quite interested in going again. Then I looked at their prices.

This is a class for 4 & 5 year olds, and it works out at nearly £15 per session. I feel that is extortionate, especially considering they have 15 to a class (now I know that's against the Child Protection Act legal ratios, which are 8:1 for under 8 year olds), and requires no equipment. Compare that to say, swimming at approx £3-4 per session (requiring a swimming pool, teacher & lifeguard as a minimum) for a max of 8 children in a class. Or Gymnastics , also at £3-4 per session (requiring loads of expensive equipment and exetremely well qualified coaches) with normally 6 in a class. I can even send him horse riding for £7.50, and that's near enough 1:1, and needs space & horses! Needless to say, Mstr A will not be joining. But there must be 1000's of parents being taken for mugs across the country.

Of course, in some ways it helps that a) Mstr A is completly rubbish at all sports, having neither the co-ordination, inclination, dicipline or listening skills to do well, and b) I am the antithesis of the pushy show-biz parent. I have seen far too many children, often with great talent, being encouraged to spend their lives in a particular sport, only to eventually realise that life really ought to be more than an endless round of training, competitions and stress. Many of them have lost their whole childhood, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, certainly not my kids.

Anyway, by the time we get home we are all flagging, Poor mstr A was falling asleep in his dinner, and tempers are running high. We all narrowly avert rowing by eating supper & as poor mstr A was falling asleep in his dinner, we put the kids to bed early.

Ah good, time to write some really abusive emails to my employers, who haven't paid their stationary bills, and therefore I haven't got any paper/ink etc to do my work on!