Beth had her playdate with ‘Jen’ on Monday. I was a bit paranoid because I had never met Jen’s mum before and as I’m still not feeling terribly well it was up to Paul to take Beth. I would have offered to stay if it was difficult but Paul insisted that he wouldn’t be doing that and I resigned myself to a ‘what’s the worst that could happen’ attitude. I know I panic and fuss too much but often people don’t realise how much she does get in to and then are surprised when things are tipped out or broken. Still, she’s not as bad as she used to be and now that she’s older her friends can take on more responsibility for her.
Paul dropped her off and said that Jen was most excited and was waiting at the top of her drive for Beth. She asked that Beth stay all afternoon and for pizza and be picked up at 7pm. Paul said he got the impression that they had been planning it for a while and they were watching Bolt when he left.
As is the way with most kids I didn’t get much out of Beth when she got home other than that it was awesome! She came home with a bag of goodies. There was a gorgeous star shaped cushion and lots of pictures and cards that Jen had made for her. How sweet, it warms my heart when kids make such an effort with Beth. I sent Jen a message last night to thank her and she wrote back saying that she’s happy to do it again one day.
Sometimes I worry about not sending Beth to high school with her friends as most kids from our school go to one of 2 schools in the hills. We will be going to one on (In Bree’s words) the flat as it will be near our new house. A friend from school whose child is going to high school next year told me that the class lists came out and there’s only 1 or 2 kids from our school in each class, if at all. I can’t guarantee that Beth would be with anybody she knows anyway and I don’t want her current friends having the pressure of looking after her. I do think a new start would be a good thing but it’ll be very sad to have Beth leave a school that has been nothing but supportive with Beth, staff, children and parents alike. I’ll still be there of course with Bill and Bridie but as most of you know it’s a lot more intense with a special needs child. We’ve still got another year to go but we’ll do some visiting to high school this year. My baby’s growing up much too fast!
