Wednesday 5 February 2014

Mind Reading Bus Journeys

I've had two surreal experiences while travelling by bus this week.
The first was on Monday when I was on the bus with my eldest. Now, he talks a lot, and doesn't listen much. We went to Liverpool on the train once and he talked the whole way there about the history of China! But on Monday he was talking about Japan, he talked a little about he history and the geography, and my mind started to wander while I thought about the volcanos and suddenly he joined in as if reading my thoughts, and said yes we are lucky we don't have volcanos here. Ok, maybe not so strange as my thoughts were related to the topic he was rambling on about, but it was just the way he appeared to answer my thoughts, I am sure I didn't think them aloud!

The second one was today while on the bus with Lucy. It was getting dark and we'd been talking about lights and what the colours of the lights we could see reminded us of. In Lucy's case it was mostly fruit? Then we fell silent. I started thinking about church for some reason. I have been feeling a bit lost lately as we haven't found a new church to attend since moving house, and I don't think I will feel as comfortable anywhere as I did in our old church. Then suddenly Lucy said, "mummy, I miss going to church, I really liked Sunday School" !!!

I think I might stop going on the bus for a while as my thoughts appear to open for anyone to see!


Friday 17 January 2014

Parenting Skills, A Ranty Post!

Forgive me, I've not posted since last year but I'm starting the new year with a rant.

The other day I was walking behind a couple with a toddler in tow. He climbed up on a little wall, two bricks high, (actually it's the one Joe climbs on everytime we pass) and on jumping down he twisted his foot and started to howl. His mum said 'serves you right' His dad said 'shut up right now, or I'll give you something to cry about' The poor lad quietened down to a whimper.

My blood was boiling. The little lad couldn't have been more than three years old, doing what a typical child of his age would do. It wasn't his fault he got hurt, it was an accident. He had every right to cry, he was hurting. I told myself it was none of my business and bit my tongue. I wish I hadn't.

Then today I'm walking behind a mum with her three kids. The mum had really black hair, obviously dyed, you could see copper highlights. The son had brown hair. The smallest girl had a mane of glorious copper hair, it really was amazing. The older girl, who looked about eight, had bleached blonde hair with copper roots. WHAT!! Why bleach your child's hair at such a young age? I know ginger headed kids get teased at school but wouldn't it be better to let them deal with it rather than bleach their hair. I know I'm not the only person who likes ginger hair, one of my best friends at school had ginger hair. There is nothing wrong with it, I don't know why some people hate it so much. Especially to the extend of dying a young girl's hair just because she's ginger.

Now, I know I'm not a perfect mum, I've messed up loads over the years. but I wouldn't be angry at my child when they are hurt, even if it was their own fault. I wouldn't bleach my child's hair at such a young age. That's like telling them they are not beautiful just as they are, if they think their own mum doesn't like the way they look how will they ever cope with what anyone else thinks of them?