At 6.19 the other morning Michael came into our bedroom fully dressed. “Surprise!” he said, “I’m ready to go to school.” We were surprised.
Archives for June 2012
Vignette from this Morning
Me: Time to get up, it’s your last Monday, in third class!
Her: Mum, it’s Tuesday.
Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth
The Princess and I went rollerblading on the road this afternoon. It was toasty, I was wearing shorts. When the Princess saw me in my rollerblades she became hysterical. “Your legs are so fat and wobbly,” gasped she. On seeing that I was far from pleased by this artless confidence, she sobered up and said, “It’s just that fat legs are so jolly.” Indeed.
Obsession
A colleague of mine likes to cycle. This is a much more expensive hobby than the uninitiated might expect. 600 quid for a set of bicycle wheels. And that’s a bargain. He would come in from lunch with a bicycle saddle under his arm having done a deal with someone on the internet. Anyhow, he made his bike. He brought it into the office one day. Literally, as he felt it wasn’t safe in the garage. I lifted up his super-light, titanium, immensely expensive, fairy-dust sprinkled bike. “It’s not that light,” said I. “Ah,” he said, “you need to take off the water bottle.”
School Reports
The children’s school reports have come in. They are good; we are pleased; they are pleased. The reports acknowledged the most impressive feat of the year – Michael who could barely read last September is now an excellent reader. And better again, he loves to read. Although not as much as he likes to play on my phone.
The Princess took the explanatory leaflet on standardised scores to bed with her so that she could work out what her results really meant. She’s going to be debriefing me later.
Daniel continues to marry ability and hard work in a manner that I can only hope will lead to great things in later life. Or, at the very least, employment.
I Wouldn’t Say the Battle is Won but it isn’t Lost Either
This article by Anne-Marie Slaughter has been doing the rounds on the internet and I’m sure you’ve already seen it somewhere else.
It’s an interesting article. The author is clearly surprised that she wasn’t able to juggle teenage children and working at a very demanding job in another city. This was because she had always been able to manage children and a demanding job before. Personally, I think it was really the commute and time away that killed her. She’s clearly very clever and ambitious. I think her thesis is, if it can’t work for me, then it can’t work for anyone. But, ironically, it is working for her. She has an important, influential job as an academic. Yes, she gave up an even better and more influential job and she is annoyed that she couldn’t make it work. I think it is true that she would have been less likely to give up, if she were a man but I still think that feminism has brought us a long, long way. So, I wouldn’t exactly call it a good news story but it isn’t quite the disaster for feminism that that she’s painting.
While my own work-life balance isn’t perfect, I can see it is far better than my mother’s was. I enjoyed paid maternity leave after my babies were born. I don’t work in a world where children only get sick on weekends or one where only their mothers can take them to the surgery. I have a job that is interesting and that I enjoy. I am also going to take July and August off work in a combination of unpaid parental leave and holidays so that I will be with my children for a very long summer break. Also, today my boss of bosses summoned me to his office and said, “You do a great job. We don’t say that enough here. You deserve your break. Enjoy yourself.” Hurrah for work. Hurrah for feminism. Hurrah for my summer holidays also.
