Category Archives: Family

Discombobulated

My house feels weird. There’s only two out of three children here, and it just feels – odd. You know that feeling when there is something you think you should have remembered, but you just can’t figure it what it is? It’s kind of like that. I’ve never had occasion to use the word discombobulated before, but I think it sums up my feelings perfectly. Yep, definitely discombobulated.

Obviously there’s quite a lot of occasions when we don’t have the full complement in the house – they have playdates, and clubs, and school – but generally speaking, come 7pm or so, they’re all here. Driving me nuts at that point, sure. Still, they are here. But last night and tonight, my biggest boy has been away on an adventure trip with school. He’s getting the chance to do some amazing activities, and I know it will be good for his confidence, and I’m sure he’s having a brilliant time. And WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH.

It’s not so much that I’m missing him, exactly – though I am.  It’s not that this is the longest I’ve ever gone without at least speaking to him on the phone. It’s not even that he is being let loose on activities like gorge walking and rock climbing and night time mountain trips  – my sensible head tells me these are all brilliant fun things for an 8 year old, while my slightly neurotic head (the louder of the two, usually) is yelling ‘DANGER! and has all manner of warning lights going off….

It’s not any of those things.

Unpicking it a bit, I think it’s fear. Fear that it’s all going too fast. Fear that this is the first of many times when our team of five has to play as four. And then three. And then just two….I’m quite sure this sounds melodramatic, and perhaps it is, just a teensy bit. But it feels like last week that I had my first baby. Last WEEK. And now he is nearly Nine. Years. Old. So by my reckoning, next week he’ll be eighteen. Holy crap. And – once again – WAAAAAAAAAAH.

Does anyone else feel like this? Or is it just me?

*shuffles off to be discombobulated all alone in a corner*

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The Reading Residence
Linking up with the fab Word of the Week Linky over at the Reading Residence

Wheels!

My girl spent the whole of last Summer trying to ride without stabilisers and just never quite got the hang of it, leading to several cuts and bruises, tears of frustration and more than a few stormy moments about the utter stupidity of people who invented bikes in the first place.

She’s not mentioned the bike for ages, using her scooter to get around instead, but when the sun popped out last Saturday, the Husband took the opportunity to get all the  bikes out of the shed, check them for punctures, tune them up and do whatever else one does with bikes that have been sitting in a damp shed over the winter. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to include stretching the wheels and frames to match the winter growth spurts – I suspect Halfords will be making quite a bit out of us this year!

‘Will you take me to the park with my bike Mum, Just me and you?’

I must admit my heart sank just a little at this, remembering how hard she had tried last year and how upset she’d got with herself when she couldn’t quite master it. But she was insistent, so off we went, with me fully expecting her to ditch the bike after ten minutes and find some friends to play with instead. I even picked up my paper on the way, thinking I’d have time for a sneaky read while she was chasing monsters through Death Valley with her mates!

No chance. This time round, she’d decided she was NOT leaving the park, unless it was on two wheels. Ninety minutes we were there, starting her off over and over again, only for her to wobble to a stop, or fall off,  or at one point crash impressively into a rubbish bin. Ninety minutes of sheer concentration, determination, and refusal to give in – that’s a long time for a six year old! I was so in awe of her, and so proud of her for trying so hard, that a few times I might have had a tear in my eye. Or early hay fever, who knows.

It paid off though! Something seemed to click and suddenly I could see she was right on the cusp of getting it. I think she could see it too – even though she was flagging a bit by this point she seemed to get a burst of energy and confidence and then, hey presto, she was off! Which seemed to coincide with a bit more hay fever on my part….

I’m so proud of my girl x

I’m linking up with the fab Countrykids at Coombe Mill – head on over for an absolute treasure trove of ideas for getting out and about with the kids!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Blogging and kids

I had a message from someone the other day in response to a post on my blog; it was a private message, because as she said, ‘my elder two don’t need to see their mother’s issues on social media’.  Her kids are older than mine, but it struck a chord with me as it’s something that’s been playing on my mind recently – the whole blogging and kids thing – both in terms of their online safety, and their privacy.

I’m aware that I am effectively creating an online footprint for my kids, before they are old enough to do it themselves. For this reason, I am careful with their identities online. I never use their names on the blog, and I use photos that are recognisable to friends and relatives, without being full face, identifiable shots. Occasionally I’ve posted a Silent Sunday which is more recognisable because I love the photo, and in this case I just mark the post as ‘private’ after a week or so.

Thanks to this article from Mediocre Mum, I do a regular google check of all my kids’  names – have a read of it to find out why you should probably do the same if you maintain any sort of online presence. And I also check the inbound links to photos on the blog, suggested by Leslie on this article at Scottish Mum.  So I’m reasonably happy that I am behaving sensibly in terms of their online safety.

But their privacy – that’s a much more tricky issue for me to wrestle with.  I think I am respectful and sensible in what I share, but will they agree? How will they feel in the future about reading about their milestones online, knowing that some of their friends’ parents may be reading the same thing? And what will it be like for them discovering things they don’t know about me?  I mean I think I have done a reasonable job so far of protecting them from the knowledge that I’m a complete muppet, but a few minutes digging around these pages will soon reveal the truth. Poor buggers, how are they going to cope with THAT?

I’ve made a start on giving the blog a bit of a separate identity, by setting up specific FacebookTwitter and Google+ profiles that I can use to share blog posts; (really? Would you? Oh how kind! Yes, just click there, and there and there and I’ll love you forevs.) The idea is that I will move away from sharing LearnerMother posts on my ‘me’ accounts. That way when the kids are old enough to set up their own social media they won’t see my witterings in their feed at least. But making the blog less in their faces, does not take away from the fact that it exists.

What do you think? Have you changed the way you blog as your kids get older? If you have older kids, how do they feel about what you write? I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you for reading, as ever!