Children

I will shamefully admit that I am not very keen on ‘other people’s children’, never have been, never will be.  Yes, I adore my own, there are friends children whom I adore, there are even a couple of my daughter’s friends who I love to bits, but on the whole, most kids I would never care much if I were to ever see them again.  This may sound harsh, it is not an attribute of mine that I am proud of, but this is how it is for me.

Case One: As you may well know, this past couple of weeks has been wonderful, weather wise, and you all know by now we have the standby olympic swimming pool in the back garden, well this is gathering around, what I nearly call, the pool users and they have been climbing out of the woodwork and the joy that comes with that has started.

The first point in case is this feral little boy from across the road.  On his own he is quite a sweet little lad, he is only 7, one of Ross’s classmates.  He comes from an absolutely terrible family, they could fill the Jeremy Kyle studio on a weekly basis, there are 8 kids, eldest being 18 and the baby who was born last year.   I won’t let Ross out on his own, he only turned 7  in march and he, in my opinion, is far too little to be out there playing with the traffic etc.

We are sitting in the garden on saturday afternoon and this lad from over the road wonders over and asks if he can come in and play with Ross.  Yes we say, only in the garden though, there is no need for him to come into the house, go and have a jump on the trampoline.  Paul and I were sat in the front garden, as that is where most of the sun is in the afternoon, and left them to it.  About half an hour later my little girl comes around and informs us, in the style only a 6-year-old can do so, that Luis, Ross’s ‘mate’ had put a huge hole in the fence, blah, blah, blah.  Just sort of acknowledged this, thinking it was her stirring it really, as she had no one to play with, and just sat and enjoyed the sun.  When I decided it was time to feed the winks, I went down to rally around the troops and blow me down, the little ‘git’ had put a hole in my fence about 2’x2′. 

I sent Luis home with a flee in his ear, waiting for his parents to come over and have a go at me, they are not the calmest and most  rational people on the planet, sent Ross to his bedroom and then started worrying about the fence.  As you may or may not know, I live in a council house and everyone here is responsible for looking after their left hand side of the fence and the little old couple who live next door spend their entire retirement gardening, they even Hoover the flipping paths once a week, there is not a stone out-of-place and now there is a gaping great hole in their bottom garden, at eye level into my slightly chaotic, filled with children, trampolines and swimming pools opposite to their piece of heaven.

Case two:  My eldest daughter Talwyn is 13, nearly 14 years old.  She is very much a child of our times-she has the i-touch, i-pod, can use a computer much better than I can, is permanently on msn and Facebook chat and would be, if I would allow her to be, online 24/7.  With this comes a certain amount of cyber bullying.  This really is par for the course these days, they get all cocky and confident when they are behind the keyboard and monitor, say stuff to each other that they would never say to each others faces and takes these ‘bitchy’ teenagers to a whole other level.

There is one child that has had my daughter in tears time after time.  I cannot abide this child and even the mention of her makes me feel sick inside.  She is everything that Sharon Matthew’s mother would be proud of in a daughter.  Talwyn has never been friends with this thing, but she is friends with her friends and has always been on the outside of Talwyn’s little social group.  The amount of times I have had to tell ‘Wyn to block her on Facebook or delete her on MSN, I have lost count.  She really is vile and a really s*** stirring little madam. 

So we get to yesterday, we are sitting watching TV and all of a sudden Wyn comes in and asks if her friend and this ‘thing’ can go in the pool.  WHAT???  I say no, tell her that I don’t even want her on my property, ask her if she can’t remember what this thing has done to her, as close as within the last fortnight, tell her that no, no, there is no way that this is happening.

I get a barrack of how she has changed…..in a fortnight???  she won’t do that to her again, how she wants to make friends with her now, she is really a very nice girl, it was ‘other people’ who being horrible….excuse me,  that makes it her friends who were being horrible to her then, so she had better drop all of them for girly x as she is perfect and it ended up in a row, where I was being told off for embarrassing her in front of X and what a terrible person I am.

After 3 attempts at this I give in.  There is no way she is allowed in my house, she can get into the pool, out of it and straight out of my garden and when she starts on Wyn again, she is not to come running to me about it, she is only using her for the pool, it is not as if she wants to be friends, and mother is told as usual that she knows nothing and to stay out of it.  Don’t worry, I will.

I am sure I must have been something like this when I was Talwyn’s age, I do remember thinking that my mum knew nothing, but the fact that she just tries to whitewash me with a load of nonsense and be so head strong, thinking that she knows it all, and the fact that I know that I am going to have to be the one to pick up the pieces when I am proven right, well, that won’t matter, will it!?

xxx

Author: Cornish Kate

I am a mum of 3, living in a wonderful part of the country, have some mobility problems, love and fight life in equal measures, am very frie View all posts by Cornish Kate