Galant asked about bear in the comments, so I thought I would do a brief recap.
Bear was originally known as little bear, but I shortened it to bear when he was big enough to attend school. He's freakishly good at maths, fairly energetic, plays football, loathes going any further than the end of the street (which is the distance to his current school), has a maths tutor as a treat, a piano tutor as a penance (although he is now doing a very good version of 'Hall of the Mountain King') and has his own Views. Arguments over homework have become the stuff of legend which I believe is normal. He is very much his own person and at ten years old is starting to look like a young lad rather than a child.
He has just started going to school and back on his own. As I said, it is a very short distance with no roads, but it seems such a big step. This week he started chatting online to pals while playing computer games. I am very nervous about this. They are all kids he knows in real life from school and DH and I have looked at the very dull chat logs and I'm in the same room and school is reinforcing the 'safe online' message but it's scary. Not allowing could leave him left out at school. I know kids younger than him that have access to Facebook, Imgur and allsorts. But he's only ten!
Today was the second in three sports days this half term. Bear went in wearing more or less his team colours and was looking forward to it. When he got home I asked about it and said that the day had been called off half way through and the school went into lockdown due to an escaped prisoner in the area who may or may not have been armed and the police hunting him. Bear said that they were all rushed inside with the lights out, the blinds down and all the kids hiding under the desk. He said that afterwards they watched 'Shrek'. He is now getting cuddles in quantity, whether he likes it or not.
It is hard to loosen the grip as they grow older. I was the Queen of the chokehold. haha. Our biggest fear when our son was growing up was him swimming in ponds/lakes. I had nightmare's about that event. Until he was 18 I could control his swimming in beautiful and see clear to the bottom pools. He is 43 now and I still worry about that and will mention it on occasion especially now that he has his own children and they like to camp at the lake. The fear came from when my S-I-L's brother skipped school with a bunch of boys and drowned in a nearby lake the summer before K. was born. The worry never stops when you are a parent. Your Bear seems much like our kiddo when he was that age.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I will ever stop worrying. It must have been so hard, a child drowning like that. I think it's a valid worry, but all we can do is hope. I hope bear is like your kiddo because you sound like you get a lot of things right. Thank you for commenting WS x
DeleteBear sounds like a great young man! He's learning to have his own opinions and venturing out on his own. I know it's really hard! I sometimes wonder how I didn't end up with an ulcer with all the worrying I did about them. It wasn't so much I didn't trust them, more I didn't trust the other people.
ReplyDeleteI swear I will never get used to this. I am so proud of him though - like all mums! I agree, I worry a lot about who he may encounter. He's doing fine, all I can do is hope. Thank you for commenting WS x
DeleteThank you for telling me about Bear. I'm still a little confused, perhaps the wee lad has a problem but whatever it is, I hope he gets on well at school, he obviously loves maths, which is great. What a to-do re the school going into lockdown. I can't recall such things happening when I was in school, but then the worst that happened there was when someone had a Parker pen stolen. The whole school was summoned to the hall and the head said that she expected the culprit to own up, otherwise there "would be consequences" (the implication was that the police would be brought in, just a threat but it worked and someone owned up.) A bit different to what happens in some schools today.
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
Bear is called 'bear' on the blog because when he was born he had a tiny vest with 'little bear' on it and when he got to school I thought he was too grown up to be little bear so he became just bear. The lock down scares me, the world is a scary place these days WS x
DeleteYes, the online world of children is a very scary thing for a parent (or grandparent in my case) to contemplate. We can only do our best to make them understand. I would not want to face the pressures that youngsters do nowadays.
ReplyDeleteEloise
There are so many different pressures these days that weren't even thought of when I was a child. The stuff online scares me half to death! When I was his age, I don't think I knew even a quarter of what kids seem to know today. Thank you for commenting WS x
DeleteHello Sybil
ReplyDeleteI'm a member of a couple of Facebook seaing groups, and someone posted today about a sewing school in Leeds. It looks fab (no idea if it *is* fab), and I thought of you and your sewing machine http://schoolofsew.com/
I have bookmarked that for September. Thank you so much for thinking of me. It looks like just what I need. WS x
DeleteOh, wow, a school lockdown is scary! Unfortunately, we had a few of those when my daughter was in school, too. I love your introduction of bear. He is such a special young man.
ReplyDeleteBear is the light of my life, and special like all children are special. I hope he grows up as loving as your daughter. Lockdowns were unheard of here only a few years ago. I think the school dealt with it well. Thank you for commenting WS x
DeleteGalant you're quite rude. Why would bear have a problem? He's sounds a delightful normal 10 year old boy
ReplyDeleteThank you for saying such kind things about bear! And for being awesome in general. Though I don't know about delightful. He produced a 'Very Important Letter' tonight that had been in his book bag for a week. Normal for a ten year old lol! Thank you for your kind comments WS x
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