Friday, June 10, 2005

Mea Culpa

There I was, a couple of months ago, bemoaning the fact that our way of life appeared to be rather closed in and hibinatory during the winter months, and now during the summer months, there are times when our level of outdoor physical activity would only be matched if we were training for the marathon.

So the reason for the guilt? Well, we have categorically overdone it this week. The little one was totally exhausted by early this afternoon, and needed carrying round a castle, up and down banks, over ruined walls, up and down steps, all of which put me in a slowly fulminating temper. Poor child. It took just one more trigger and I was off...listing her mistakes, and misunderstandings of the day, one after the other, in the manner of the idiot grudge-holder that I was. She cried and then fell asleep before I could apologise.

What an unmitigated fool I am. I have subsequently talked with the most wonderful, understanding adult who has roundly sorted me out over a bottle of white, and I have gone back and whispered apologies into Dd's sleeping brain, in the desperate hope that they register in her unconscious. I will apologise formally tomorrow when she wakes.

Ds however, has had the week of his life. He loves the ice-skating, the skateboarding, the frisbee, the game of cricket, the wall climbing, the card games, the skateboarding, the trampolining, the go-carts, the gymnastics, the sloping castle and the skateboarding. He loved the lecture on weapons, with one of his much beloved mates acting the foil to the genius teacher...Teacher on weapons "So tell me someone, what is a pike?"...JM "A fish". Teacher.."Yeah right, I can see them now, wading into battle all wielding a medium-sized fish". Incidentally, the genius teacher is also actually a Home Educating dad.

How to solve the problem of meeting both children's differing needs. Must work on achieving those common preferences again...Have no immediately brilliant solutions but will think again when Dh returns and my capacity to think will hopefully also return!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope it was all OK in the morning..Gx

Carlotta said...

Yes, perhaps the midnight whispering worked. She seemed entirely unscathed the next day. PHEW!