Skip to main content

New starts, little souls.

It's what all parents are thinking about and talking about. Some have even been dreaming about it since the start of the summer. The kids are starting school again this week. 

With it comes the exhilaration at your new found freedom or the sad feeling that the summer together has gone all too soon. And that we will miss not only the sun but the time spent together. 

Kids will be lining up to join their old friends again or standing around looking for a familiar friendly face in an overwhelming sea of people. As a parent you always hope that your child will be equipped with the strength and self confidence to deal with any feelings of loneliness or fear. There is no greater gut wrenching moment than when you fear your child is the one feeling like the odd one out or "Billy no mates". 

My child is lucky to have had many friends in her class in the last few years. 
This year she will be starting a new class, with barely a close friend in it. Not as bad as starting afresh in a new school perhaps but as a mum of a sensitive, bright little girl still a moment of apprehension. Will her old friends soon forget to include her at playtime as new bonds form in the current class? Will she feel like a little lost soul in a class full of friendships carried through from previous years? Perhaps not. Probably not.

She will most likely form new friendships. Add to those formed last year and meet some new friendly faces. That's what we tell each other and encourage her to do. 
Building the excitement for her about the new class, new teacher and new friends, I can't help but wonder if we should also mention the fact that if she does find things hard, that is ok too. To not shy away from the hard part that can be school's social life. To prepare her rather than to merely hope that she won't feel lonely or sad sometimes. 

For now I will send her off with a little note telling her we all love her and hope she enjoys her lovely new class. Positive thinking with a little love as back up. 

Back to school it is. Enjoy everyone!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Social media - a young person's game?

Only vain, young people would consider living their life broadcasted on various social media platforms. And no one would watch anyone older than the age of 25 blog, vlog or snapchat about their life as surely, someone that old couldn't possibly have anything interesting to talk about. Scanning places like Instagram, youtube and snapchat, it would certainly seem that way. Short of some "yummy mummy does the school run in style" type accounts these places seem largely populated by young, child-free fashion and beauty bloggers/vloggers. Where are the women in their thirties, forties and fifties to follow? Granted, it's not too hard to find some stylish people on Instagram, but a picture isn't the same as a blog or a vlog. I am quite enjoying the youtube vlogs of the youngsters, but would love to see some people my age on there too. It seems they are hard to find. Are we just too busy to consider publishing content on a media platform that requires more than...

Unfinished

As a child I had a go at so many sports: tennis, judo, athletics, badminton, horse riding. I've done them all. And probably many more which I have already erased from my memory. I've gone to hours and hours of music lessons, piano lessons and music history lessons. And yet, after all these years I'd struggle to be decent at any of these things. One of my childhood assessments pretty much came out with this conclusion: I can get quite good at things with ease, but don't have the stamina to finish things or become great at them. It's a recurring theme in my life, this "not finishing things". I gave up university for love (that was my excuse anyway, maybe the option of moving abroad was easier and more convenient than admitting that I didn't like being at university). I used to get told off for always leaving a tiny bit of food on my plate (unless it's cake of course, I'm not daft). I have yet to pick up my professional accountancy education ...

Stuff it.

Ever feel like you just want someone to come and remove all the junk from your house? The stuff: the kids toys they never play with (but happily scatter around the house); the unread books,  the clothes we've outgrown (yet the kids will still pull out, discard in the washing basket unworn for you to wash over and over unknowingly); the things lurking in drawers and cupboards; the things you trip over in the garage. The stuff. This minimalist, Scandi-style is all the rage lately. But after having spent 3 years aiming to reduce the amount of clutter in our house, I can only conclude that I have been defeated. We seem to bring in far more than we get rid off. It's so tempting to get the black bin liners out and just swoop from room to room chucking everything out. Because it's the sorting through, the planning how and where to take things to (tip, charity shop, donate etc) that takes up all the time and makes me loose the will to live. OK, maybe not to live, but at least...