Why so busy?
I was intending to blog daily (well Mon -Fri) anyway and guess what my day s just seem to have got well busy. There I was with only one or two things on my to do list, pacing myself to stay apparently busy in the eyes of those above and WHACK! An hour of I'm really sorry but this just came in can you find the details and get them back to me ASAP!
My wife wa unhappy because I had promised that for the first time in months I would be home on time and not over my official duty finish.
Then the same thing today. Tomorrow was already maxed out so there goes my on time finish for the weekend. It'll be a late finish and early return to work on Sunday for a Battle of Britain parade.
Never mind *#*# happens.
Sports Days
Went to my boy's sports day this afternoon, (He's only 3). The big push by teachers was for the parents to be there and that taking part was all that was important with all the children getting a medal and certificate. That was of the teachers, the parents were a bit more competive whilst the kids just enjoyed running with their friends.
Made me wonder who the day was for and why?
Obviously the day should be for the kids but there is a bit of parent one up manship comes to play, thats just human nature. It is this non-competitive bit I have a problem with. All through our lives we compete, for a better job, for promotion and even socially with our friends. Sometimes it is not losing that is the problem but our perception of losing. It is okay to lose if we learn from it and make positive steps from the disappointment to increase later success. Surely if we don't allow competition we deprive people of that ability or the potential to learn it.
There are always going to be people who lose, and some will take it badly and not move on, that also, is human nature. How do you prepare people for that if we set up a school culture where no-one is seen to lose. not winning can be great motivator for most people and push them to strive harder.
Lets face it, no-one in the grown up world is going to say, 'You weren't good enough to get the job/promotion but here is a job anyway because at least you tried'. To commend effort is not the same thing, why strive to improve yourself if you are going to get the prize anyway. Why are we afraid of saying 'well done, good effort' whilst giving the trophy to the person who actually beat everyone else. What does this teach our children to expect?
Personally I always enjoyed competition and I didn't always win. I don't expect a prize for doing my best but falling short of the mark and am usually surprised to see a 'well done' for my efforts. We will all fail or lose at something surely our childhood should prepare us to be sportsman like winners and good losers. Isn't it better to get this out of the way early? After all, parents will continue to compete for their children and all the children will grow up to be adults who will have to deal with failure, in some measure or other.
Party, Party, Party.. but not mine!
A weekend full of parties, Went to one on Saturday and another on Sunday. Only problem they were birthday parties my 3 yr old son was invited too! So two days of young kids runnning around with out any sign of exhaustion, eating loads of unhealthy food and getting away with it cos it's a party.
Always worries me how many parents arrive at these things and say, 'see you at 3'. Leaving no contact no. and just giving little Jonnie or Jessica a peck on the cheek. The child looks on forlornly for a few moments as mum and dad skip merrily out the door discussing what to do with this stolen few hours. Of course little Jonnie or Jessia are soon running around and playing completely unconcerned.
Because the usual venue for the parties we go to are in a secure area on a military base I have never really thought about it and my wife and I always stay just in case anyway. Sunday's Party was at a public place where there were about another 5 or 6 parties going on. This meant about 60 kids rather than the usual about 10 and lots of adults we neither knew nor had met before. Yet the majority of parents seemed happy to let their children stay in the care of someone they only see in passing when they drop their children at Nursery and know nothing about.
Don't get me wrong the venue was set up for this purpose and had better security on it than most child play facilities, you know those Pubs with a kids play pen etc.. But it was still public in an area with less control than we would normally have at our usual party venue.
Oh well.. maybe I'm just being a little paranoid. The boy had a cracking time on the climbing frames and slides playing with his friends and I even got to re-live a few memories drinking Slush Puppys. Sure the cup size has shrunk though :-).
A bit of Greek to celebrate
My wife has just recently passed her English GCSE (Ain't Adult Learning great), so with family deciding to visit we went out for a meal knowing that Grandpa could look after our boy.
After searching the internet for a Greek restaurant locally we were surprised to find one in a nearby town. In actual fact we have regularly driven past it without noticing. We arrived suitably excited at trying a new cuisine and were pleased to see how busy it was. Concerns started to settle in after an hour wait for the starters, but were settled quickly by the offer of a free bottle of wine in apology. This was done without our complaint, I was suitably impressed.
The food soon came and it was excellant. The atmosphere was good and the service friendly. We left lighter in the pocket, but not excessively so and fully nourished. we are now looking forward to an earlier timed visit so the whole family can go. Got to be a pleasant change to the standard pub meal or McDonalds.
The next morning saw us groggy from the extra bottle of wine but the Sunday morning family swim soon put paid to that leaving only a pleasant memory as my son tried to jump on my head from the pool side.
Unfortunately Sunday was soon over and so Monday and work beckons. Meetings and paperwork abound, whilst I look forward to the next weekend and another two days of kids parties and uninterrupted family life (the good and the bad).
E-Mail Humour
Somebody sent this to me in an E-Mail, thought I might share it with anyone who looks at this blog
POLITICALLY CORRECT DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS
1. Thingy (thing-ee) n.
Female: Any part under a car's hood.
Male: The strap fastener on a woman's bra.
2. Vulnerable (vul-ne-ra-bel) adj.
Female: Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another.
Male: Playing football without a jockstrap.
3. Communication (ko-myoo-ni-kay-shon) n.
Female: The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner.
Male: Leaving a note before taking off on a fishing trip with theboys.
4. Commitment (ko-mit-ment) n.
Female: A desire to get married and raise a family.
Male: Trying not to hit on other women while out with this one.
5. Entertainment (en-ter-tayn-ment) n.
Female: A good movie, concert, play or book.
Male: Anything that can be done while drinking beer.
6. Flatulence (flach-u-lens) n.
Female: An embarrassing by-product of indigestion.
Male: A source of entertainment, self-expression and male bonding.
7. Making Love (may-king luv) n.
Female: The greatest expression of intimacy a couple can achieve.
Male: Call it whatever you want just as long as we do it.
8. Remote Control (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
Female: A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
Male: A device for scanning through all 375 channels every five minutes.
A very sad day
What a terribly sad day it is. Hundreds of children have been injured and many killed in a school in Russia. It is awful to think that some people hold life, and especially the life of a child, in so little regard. It is a new milenium and it seems that peace is an ever distant dream for many nationalities and countries in our world.
We see what goes on in the countries selected to be presented in the news whilst knowing that violence continues in many African States and that child soldiers are even seen as a legitimate source of military recruiting. We seem to be continuing the propagation of hate and intolerance through out the world. It would seem that far from there being a new enlightened age of peace and tolerance we seem to be falling into a worsening mire of hate and violence being propagated by supposed 'freedom fighters' and 'terrorists'. Lets call them what they are killers and the takers of innocent life.
There have been many causes over history apparently worthy of the loss of life but the difference with this is the loss of life to the activist, not the innocent. It is easy to see something noble in a person willing to risk THEIR life for a principle or goal but it can surely never be condoned to take innocent lives with you. The activist has a choice that he/she just doesn't offer to the innocents they take with them.
I despair of the decade to come, and the century ahead of us. There seems no abatement to this horror but only escalation with no answers and only the promise of more violence. No-one even seems to have an answer. We live in a world where the peacemaker is just as likely to be slain/targetted as the miliary/political hawk.
The only thing I know is that the innocent will continue to be targeted, they are easier targets, and that it is the civilian majority across the world who will pay the cost. Don't we all just want a secure and safe place to live in and to bring up our families, irrespective of country, race, religion or sex.
