Thursday, November 18, 2010

Parenting Crimes .......


The week has given me cause for reflection - in the photo above you can see my lovely Tom.( He is going flatting in January). This week he reminded me again how one of the hardest things to do as a parent  is to stand back and let your kid sort it out.  This week he had to find a work placement as part of his Polytech course. The work placement was due to start Monday and by Monday he still had not had any luck in finding someone to take him on. Getting into fix it mode I started thinking of favours I could call in. When none of them turned up trumps I got mad. Haven't I done so many favours for so many kids in the course of my work?? Look - I have Chloe here as proof of that. I was indignant that the universe had not complied with my request.  Fool that I am - the necessary learning was for Tom to persevere and find his own placement. At the 11th hour he did! And is now having a great time and a well earned sense of satisfaction that he made this happen without the help of his mother!!


A parcel a week has morphed into a phone call a week in  my house. Postage to the USA is horrendous and to send Rosies birthday presents cost an outrageous $52!!  What was even worse was the entire contents of the parcel were only worth about $20. The star attraction - a new bottle of perfume had been sniffed out as a prohibited item by the shrewd post office attendant. The box was cut open the offending item removed and the rest sent off. Still by all accounts the birthday passed very well and marked a new milestone in our house - that is not being home for the birthday. The first ever!!  Instead of making a birthday cake I made instead some homemade bread. It is the no knead recipe from Anabel Langbein.  Delicious.




Here's to a week of  trusting that our kids have all the qualities they need to figure it out. The trick is to to  know when.

Cheers Marg

4 comments:

  1. flag the parcels Marg; $52 to send stuff worth $20 just doesn't measure up particularly when you factor in the possibility of some officious Post office (wonder if "officious" is derived from "office"?) worker hacks into it. No wonder they call losing it and running amok "going postal". A Post Office is like a sheltered workshop for people who can't get other jobs.

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  2. Great news about the placement Tom, well done! I hope it's a great place to work.
    That bread looks nice, and isn't it nice that it's the end of the week?! Gotta love a Friday.

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  3. Hey can you tell us where the cafe is and we'll go in for a coffee? Hope it turns out to be fun. Love the look of that bread. Yes, I too hastily scribbled down that recipe. looks delicious.

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  4. Well done Tom, truly it is the best outcome that you found this job all by yourself. Your nephew is very keen on this phrase, he wants to do everything all by himself too. And Marg, how great is it that those favours can still be called in, but for you!

    We are having a 'heliday' in Russel. That's what you call a holiday with a toddler. Love MAS x

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