Posted by Jenny
My son is a little monkey. All my kids are monkeys, but this week he is
particularly a monkey. He’s adorable with his red hair, brown eyes and sallow
skin. He’s gentle, sensitive and enjoys problem solving. He loves his family,
loves his friends and loves going to school. One of his favourite tv shows is a
programme called “Finding stuff out”. Every episode kids can send in
why-does-this-happen/how-does-this-work questions and a kid called Harrison will “find the stuff out”. Very annoying, if
you’re an adult.
Anyway, to get back to why my
son is a monkey, surprise surprise, it has to do with him implementing a
thought process that clearly has had results in the past during or just after dinner
time. My son is a good eater. However, his diet is very limited. At least it’s
limited to the good stuff (and so far I’m not complaining), carrots, broccoli,
sweetcorn, potatoe waffles and fish fingers. This is all he eats. Every day.
For dinner. Except Saturdays, that’s Pancake Day in our house, a sacred
tradition. As is Daddy Dinner Day on Fridays (nutella sandwiches!).
He’s not too keen on the fish
fingers, but we insist he eats it. Better then nothing, right? Right. Well, let
me take you back to the bit where I said that he’s enjoys problem solving. “If
mummy doesn’t see me hide the food, she thinks I’ve eaten it, even when I
didn’t.”
I’m not claiming that his
reasoning is flawless. He’s only 7 years old. But he has clearly thought about
it in enough detail for it to lead to an execution of a plan. I started to find
fish fingers in his pockets…. Clearly he hadn’t taken into consideration that
mummy eventually will find the food and that it was a very short term solution
to an obviously longer term problem with a fairly significant consequence as
mummy is now AWARE.
Last week I had taken a much
anticipated week off work. I had no plans made, other than be mum for the week,
which I don’t get to do that often as I work full time. I’m not complaining,
merely stating a fact. I was really looking forward to doing school runs,
homework, chatting and playing, cooking and yes, cleaning. Our “old” au pair
was leaving on the Monday and the “new” au pair was arriving on the Thursday.
So while I was doing my chores I was compiling a list of “things” in my head
that I had to organize for the “new” au pair. The list usually contains vague
items like:
·
make
a new time table,
·
show
her around here and there,
·
do
the how-to-disipline-a-3-year-old talk,
·
do
the how-to-discipline-a-5-and-7-year-old talk,
·
do
the child-safety-don’t-take-the-widow-chains-off-in-your-bedroom-when-you-open-the-window
talk and the
·
keep-your-make-up-locked-away-because-my-3-year-old-will-rob-you-blind
talk
While I was industriously vacuuming the floors, I discovered a new talk.
I pushed away the toy box, which I admit with shame (not), happens only a few
times a year and found 1, 2, 3….. 12 fish fingers! 12!
I have added the watch-my-son
–when-he-eats talk to my au pair list. And my son? Well, he has to go back to
the drawing board. I am honestly looking forward to finding out what he’ll come
up with next.
I have recently read my way through six Sookie Stackhouse books. Charlaine
Harris, you got me hooked! They were great pieces of entertaining escapism and
kept me reading book after book. I’m preparing to get my hands on the next
instalment and I can’t wait.
The books are different from the tv series. The story line has obviously
been adapted for television and in my opinion both work within their own
medium. Box-set heaven! For viewing when the kids are in bed though, as they’re
a bit explicit on the sex side of things. Series 6 is due out soon, I believe….
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