Thoughts

Well what a confusing day of mixed emotions. I have had a teacher undermine my authority and baby a student that had done wrong, and another teacher repeat instructions to a student that I had given only 5 minutes previously. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and it'll take more than today to put me off but seriously, at the risk of sounding old, I just want to say to those teachers, "I'm old enough to be your mother, and I probably have a better education and have lived in the REAL world much longer!"

I'm sorry, I know that on today of all days you might expect more of me and think about what is really important like the war and Remembrance Day, but I guess it all comes down to respect. I have asked students of all ages to stand in silence today, to show respect for those that have fought and are still fighting. I have explained how their loss was for our freedom, and that without going through those wars they wouldn't be getting the education they are today.

And so with a short and maybe not so sweet blog I would like to remind everone out there that respect is a two way thing, it doesn't matter how old you are or where you were educated, it's about understanding other people and thinking about their lives, what they may have to live with or what they've lived through. That doesn't always mean war.

 

The moral of the story...

Moral - of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour

I thought I’d add the correct definition of this word before I started, just to help with my blog, not that I think you really need it....

Are having morals a good thing I wonder? It seems that recently some of my family and I are being tested on this matter, obviously not by someone on high but I suspect some evil person here on earth watching us, hoping that we’ll slip up and not do the right thing. 

Some weeks ago my brother went to withdraw some money from the hole in the wall and guess what? What can only be described as a miracle, or an idiot with no brain, there hanging out of the machine was a large amount of cash. My brother calmly, I’m assuming, though knowing him it was actually a case of jumping, whooping and running to the wine aisle in Sainsburys.... no, sorry, calmly took the money and went home. He was very honest about what had happened, in fact he even made it his status on Facebook, because his head told him it was easy money, run and keep quiet but his heart and morals told him, it isn’t yours you should hand it in to the bank. Are you asking yourself what you would do? I did, and it’s a real toughy. But of course he did the right thing and handed it back in at the bank, where it was rightfully claimed by the dizzy blonde that had left in the first place, and thankfully she did send him a small reward for his honesty.

Two days ago I received a most unusual e-mail, telling me that my remittance advice for my childcare vouchers had been posted and I could view my account at my leisure. The odd thing is, the company that I had this account with was closed 2 years ago when I stopped minding a particular monster child. Now as I actually get rather a lot of spam mail I decided to ignore it, but luckily didn’t delete it. Mr Grumpy came in yesterday and had been checking our account on line, as he does, and saw that rather a large amount of money had been paid in to our account by the afore mentioned company. Now the dilemma was ours, of course without any hesitation he decided we needed to call them and tell them of their mistake.... I was still thinking.

But he was right and I made the call telling them that I thought there must be an error, the young lady was lovely and polite but alas not too helpful. She said she has no way of finding out where the money has come from and whether I should have it or not. I know it’s not mine but I don’t see why I should do their job for them, so to keep a clear conscience and staying within my own code of ethics and morals, I shall put the money to one side just in case in 6 months they realise their error and come looking for the cash.

Not very exciting I’m afraid but I do hope it makes you think about what you would do. 

Festive Folly

So here we are again, that magical time of the year where every where around us people are counting down. It’s only this many weeks till the Christmas lights go on, only so many weeks till we break up for the Christmas holidays, and every news readers favourite, only silly number of shopping days till Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all the celebrations and festivities, mainly the food and booze, but most importantly seeing my boys opening their presents. Of course as they’ve got older it has got a little less interesting, as all they really want now is money for something that they’re saving for. I know that’s a good thing, easy for us, but when you don’t feel the magic of baby jesus, you kind of look for that something special from those around you.

We’re also lucky that we have the odd kind of children that actually enjoy getting clothes, I’m sure my eldest brother and sister in law will back me up on this one. I remember one Christmas when Master Musical opened a lovely T shirt they’d given him, I think it was adorned with Bugs Bunny, and he actually looked in awe and said “wow!” Not sarcastically either. It’s also the one day of the year that for that first hour of the day, we can almost guarantee that Master Grumpy does not live up to his name, but it is really only about an hour, after that there’s usually something for him to moan about.

So, as it fast approaches I really am looking forward to the happy day being here, despite the worry of what to buy for who, ensuring Mr Grumpy gets all the cards written, wrapping all the presents and then off to Sainsburys for the shop of my life. Let’s not even mention getting up and starting cooking at some ridiculous hour on the big day, still, that’s helped along with a nice early morning sherry... 

Honestly, I do love it really, and those that know me really well know that I’ve already started to think about quoting my favourite saying of them all,
I’ve only got to go to bed and get up, go to bed and get up, go to bed and get up, go to bed and get up... you get the idea! It’s 51 by the way!