Must remember never to borrow anything from father again - posted it back today and felt 'good riddance'. Mother emailed - subject "About time" thought it must be father, but also didn't make sense as how could he have got something I only posted 3 hours ago. Mother happy and quilting madly, inside, away from the cold.
By crikey, its really very cold now. I have the school heater going a lot, and the house fire going whenever possible. And we were still making steam clouds when we breathed at the table (which was reassuringly regular).
I've been reading a book about Margot Fonteyn. So far she is just getting started really. there is a comment in the book about how really good performers are often if not always backed up by a more or less pushy mother. I would like the kids to excel at something, and certainly at this age the push would have to come from me. Delayed gratification is beyond comprehension for little kids. i don't want to be a pushy mother, more a supportive one, so it seems that the kids will have a fun childhood rather than a rigorous one with training of any kind being pushed down their throats. I guess they are kind of lucky, cos they get to have fun, but they may miss out on the satisfaction of being really good at something. Like violin, which C is already too old to be fantastic at. And he's six.
And they might not care, because they might be happy balanced people with no particular skills, but a satisfying life. And they might be bitter and twisted because I removed their opportunities by not pushing them in their youth.
Who is to know at this end of their childhood?
Posted by Toni at June 22, 2006 09:49 PM