We all slept in this morning thanks to a very late night last night. We rushed around getting dressed, breakfasted and kitchen cleared before nipping out to pick up Tasha and co to bring them back here. We’d not long been in when my food shopping arrived so Tasha (and Vinnie) very kindly assisted in bringing that in and putting it away.
Tasha and I had a couple of hours chatting, the children played, Scarlett appeared downstairs and spent some time organising all my knitted patches into a blanket shape – I’m nearly there so have set myself a target of Sustainability Camp to get it finished and sewn together.
We had lunch and then headed off to the local green where there was a National Play Day event. I have to confess to previously having had no idea what it was all about and only knowing about it and going along as we’d arranged to meet Caz and Bid there as they were supporting some friends who run circus skills workshops. It was way more than that and there were 100s of people there doing arts and crafts and making and stuff. Davies and Toby got busy with totally ignoring all of the free activities on the green and going off into the trees to play with Archie and some other new found friends. Scarlett did some massive mural type artworks which she brought over to me, using shaving foam, footprints, paint and more and then went off to join the boys.
It was lovely to see Caz and Bid as always and they were most interested in yesterday’s antics and indeed text me later to say they’d caught the tv stuff as it was repeated on various other local news programs around Sussex throughout today.
We finally left about 330pm after an ice cream stop and dropped Tasha and co home on the way back. Davies took a call on my mobile from the local paper and arranged for them to ring me back, which they did and I did yet more waxing lyrical on what we do and why we do it while hanging the washing out.
I made 3 giant chocolate chip cookies to sandwich together with ice cream for my Dad’s birthday cake tomorrow as cookies and ice cream is his favourite dessert and got dinner ready for Davies and Scarlett who were very busy playing a Michael Jackson game with the geomags. Don’t ask me how MJ has now become a game my kids play but they are experts on the life and times of him complete with discography of all his songs and names of all his siblings. They don’t seem to know all the ins and outs of the child abuse allegations mind you and I think I may leave filling them in on that whole episide for now really.
Ady came home, the kids had a bath, I brushed Tarly’s hair and we read the last few chapters of the Mr Gum book we were re-reading before it was bedtime for them.
During all of this my parents rang to say they’d just seen us on TV. A slightly odd conversation where my Mum said to me ‘well you love all that don’t you?’ about me being on TV and radio as though I am some sort of Jordan / Posh Spice type media whore. Which I so am not! I’d never actively seek out that sort of scrutiny and whilst I’m happy I did a fair job of representing myself and the message we were trying to convey yesterday I’d have been far more happy to go along and anonymously blow bubbles really… She followed that up with ‘there has been a lot of fuss about all these people pretending to home educate and not really doing it hasn’t there?’ and then my Dad came on to mutter something dark about how ‘they should all be at school’. So not much in the way of ‘well done’ ‘you came across well’ ‘we’re proud of you’ or any of the stuff it would have been quite nice to hear from them really. Gahhhhh. All of which meant I had a minor wobble and spent ages with both children seperately listing all the things I love about them and am so proud of them for and think they are amazing and awesome at. NEVER EVER will my children feel anything but love, warmth and admiration from me, particularly when they are brave and strong about something they are passionate and believe in and stick their heads way out of their comfort zone to support.
Fortunately in our house it’s a two way street and my kids are equally as intuative and in touch with me so Davies called me upstairs at 11pm to tell me he loved me and asked if I could stay with him while he fell asleep so he could play with my hair (which is how he fell asleep for years and years but hasn’t done for a very long time). I realised today he is barely a month away from being 9 which means he is halfway to being an official adult. OMG!
Anyway…. a bath, dinner and a pep talk from Ady and all’s well again. Tomorrow I will play the dutiful daughter role with my home baked birthday cake offering and Dad’s favourite dinner cooked by Ady. I did get a very lovely text from my brother saying all the right things though so it’s nice to know both of us feel what the other needs even when our parents don’t quite provide it.
*tears hair out in frustration at your parents’ response*
And you came across very well indeed and I wouldn’t and couldn’t have done any of it without you there, as you know because you were one of two friends I checked the date with before making it public.
xxx
Comment by Ali — 06 August 2009 @ 12:51 am
Thanks mate x Not sure whether I’m more pissed off at their dismissive response to me or their still totally not getting why we are collectively against the whole thing really, but I guess all the while they think the kids should be in school anyway it’s all irrelevent which bit of it they were crap about.
Might set Davies on them tomorrow…
Comment by Nic — 06 August 2009 @ 1:11 am
We went to our local Play Day last year and the kids had a great time, and we were a bit disappointed this year when we realised it clashed with the bike thing. Glad you enjoyed yours.
Argh and bleurgh to unsupportive parents 🙁
Comment by Alison — 06 August 2009 @ 9:40 am