Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The joys of parenting

Sometimes, as a parent, you have to take a leap of faith. The first time you leave your child at nursery or school and the guilt as you help to hold them down to be anaesthetized for surgery, are days which will be etched in your memory for all the wrong reasons.

For me today is one of those days, because it snowed last night. Not a lot...about an inch of snow, if that, had settled this morning. But I hate having to put my autistic, learning disabled, nonverbal son on to the school bus in this weather. I worry all day about not only his journey there but also the journey back this evening. Yes, I know that sounds feeble...he has to travel just 12 miles, through two London boroughs, largely on busy roads. But anyone who remembers how snow brought chaos to London in 2003 (was it really that long ago?!) will understand why.

As I write the snow is melting away from the roads and pavements, but I won't be able to relax until the bus arrives back this evening. Then of course the roads may be perilously icy tomorrow morning, if the weather forecast is correct. Why can't this country deal with snow and ice as they do in Europe and North America?

P.S. He didn't get to school until 9.30am (should have been 9.00am) but was home at normal time, with the bus driver and escort looking much happier than they did this morning!

3 comments:

Anne Brooke said...

One snow-hater greets another - welcome!!

:))

A
xxx

Anonymous said...

Cathy, we were talking about this at work yesterday. For some reason when you have children two new hormones get switched on. One is the emotional hormone, the other is the guilt hormone.

They certainly don't tell you that in any of the 'parenting manuals'. Not that I read any.

I remember once it had been snowing quite heavily. My son looked out of the front door and I said "come on then let's go to the car".

He looked up at me, walked outside and said "it's cold, isn't it?".

"Yes", I said thinking how astute he was.

It wasn't until I put him in the car I realised I hadn't put his shoes on!

I felt awful. That memory will not leave me.

I can laugh about it now with him, but then, I felt dreadful.

So don't worry, you are in good (!) company.

Cathy said...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one, Sue!