A Humdrum Mum

As you may have read in my previous post, I am moving house on Thursday. YES THURSDAY. Anyway I thought you might find the following three facts interesting. Or not. 1. Above is a see-through bag full of Tupperware that I packed the other day. The photo I took amazed me in its dullness despite colour. 2. Just now I found in one cupboard under the sink the following three items: a pot of Nivea face cream, a tea towel and rat poison. Why? 3. A label on one of my boxes - Chopping boards and trivets. This is what my life has been reduced to. I have now lost the will to live, let alone pack. I may be back...

I am moving house a week tomorrow. This means I will be far too busy to blog. It really means I should  be too busy to blog. I'd better excuse myself now in any case. Please don't forget me, come back when I'm back! Love to you all, my little followers. -HMx

At the moment, when I think of labelling, I think of two things: one is the rubbish labels that I bought for Elf's school clothes which have already fallen off; the second is how dangerous labelling a child can be.  We are taught as new parents to label actions not the person. A label can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. "If I am told I'm naughty all the time, I may as well act naughty." I didn't need my degree in Psychology to understand that one. Which brings me to the world of work. In a company where "Customer delight" is our number one priority, and obviously as an employee I am a customer, I am not delighted to be labelled "difficult". My newly promoted manager's manager said at the time of his promotion that "I wasn't to make life difficult for him". This upset me and made me feel like the old dinosaurs, who used to own this company before we were bought out by an American giant, were still at large, labelling a...

This week's theme at The Gallery  is A Celebration. I am somewhat limited with my photos for The Gallery - my iPad only has a few on, no archive back to 2006 like the laptop (which Mr Humdrum is on constantly, hence my iPad purchase); and my iPhone is limiting because you can't take pics in the dark. My camera is the most irritating as it doessn't easily connect to a laptop. However I have found one to suit and to stop all my moaning. This was my birthday this year, in June, at our local cafe where I spent the majority of my maternity leave. All new mums go there, as they are very pram friendly outside, it's near the sea and you can breastfeed in public there quite easily. I have been going for years, but the first time I went on maternity leave was when Elf was about a month old. I started meeting F, Woody and Jessie's mum, there at 2pm bleary-eyed in those early days, feeling amazed that we'd actually got out of the house, have a cuppa and a cake, chat obvi...

Elf was getting very philosophical at the weekend. Must be his first week of schooling rubbing off. We were travelling between grandparents' houses on Sunday in Cornwall, near Landrake to be precise. Elf said "Before anyone was born, before even the dinosaurs, there was a volcano here, but a woodcutter cutted it down and it went into the river." I said "Before anyone was born?" He replied "Yes, well except there was one person here." "God?" I questioned. "No. Dave!" was the response.

It is Sunday evening and for the first time in 5 years, I have the "I have to go to work tomorrow" feeling. And it's a full day 9-5, the rest of my working week is now Tuesday til Thursday 9-1 - proper part time! I skipped the Monday last week, first day at school and all that, so it will be a shock tomorrow. So the first week is over. Phew! Let's see how we did... Elf was a star, in fact the head teacher took me aside and said he was a credit to me. I do know her, and she knows Elf so it wasn't just a flip comment. I am very happy about this, children do the most unlikely things and just when you think they'll sail through something, they go and throw a wobbly. I had a wobble on Thursday. Mr Humdrum was doing drop-off and pick-up Tuesday til Thursday and after diligently copying down the hours for the first week, I was sure he was 9-12 every day except Friday, his first full day with lunch. Mr Humdrum called me at 11.55 saying Are you sure that he'...

Back to school   One is Elf taken this week, the other is Mr Humdrum taken mid-1970s - but which is which?  I am so pleased that this is the subject of The Gallery this week as not only is it Elf's first week this week (day 4 and I forgot to provide lunch!) but it is also MY first day tomorrow. I am going to be helping out during Passport Time after lunch. This is when Years R, 1 and 2 get together to learn ensemble through different media. I am a bit of an academic Nazi I've been told (what's wrong with learning by rote?) so this will be interesting to me. My plan is to help out at first then to hopefully gain a teaching assistant post, then when Elf is older and doesn't need me, I will train as a teacher. I've always wanted to be a teacher - I'd love to teach French and Spanish to juniors. Watch this space!

I was texting a mummy friend: "We can't meet up on Mondays from September because I will be at work." It struck me afterwards that the reason I'll be at work is because Elf will be at school! What a dozy mum I am. If I can't even sort out his social life, what hope is there for me?

This was Elf at one month old in February 2006. It is the first picture I have of him on his personal blog. He went to our childminder aged 1 for a year, and then at 2, he joined his current nursery.  Just under 2 years later, today is his last day at nursery. It is a cliché yes, but it is the end of an era.  And also the end of my having to work 3 long days at work, with matching long days at nursery for Elf. Next week's school start will be emotional, but also it will mean shorter days and more quality time spent with Elf. And maybe some home-cooked dinners eh Elf?