Son no 3 wrote this poem for a school project this week which touched my heart.  Enjoy …..

The Memory of what once was

Son no 4 was recently elected as a Prefect at school.  He is in Grade 7 which is the senior year of what we term as primary school in South Africa.  They went on prefect camp 2 weeks ago which is like a leadership camp where they all bond and vote on the Head Boy and Head Girl positions for the year.  This vote is then tallied and the teachers and school Principal get to have their say and finally the heads are elected at some point in the near future.

Today I was invited to attend the school assembly once again.  This usually means that my child is receiving an award of sorts and I am very proud to say that my son has been elected as Head Boy.

I am thrilled to death. He is thrilled to death.  He has always claimed it is a sure thing for him and he has claimed for the last 3 years that this position is his.  So I am really pleased all of his hard work has paid off.

As life would have it, I cleaned out my cupboard yesterday and managed to do a really good purge.  I also found a dress I have never worn before.  I am generally not big on dresses so it was a quick decision to chuck it out or wear it.  So I decided to wear it today and of course wore the highest heels I have to go with it.  As they started announcing the heads, they kindly asked for the parents to come up on stage as well.  So there I am, in my short dress, white legs, high clunky heels, clunking my way up the stairs to the stage (imagining myself falling flat on my face going up), and then clunking my way all across the stage.  Had I known, I would have dressed a lot more modestly!  I stood there whilst they took photographs with the biggest smile ever on my face – firstly because I am so proud and secondly because I was having a seriously embarrassing moment imagining what I must look like.

I am not a helicopter mom and I am fairly hands off when it comes to schooling.  Yes I make sure homework is done and I even help out on occasion but I generally leave the teachers to do their thing.  I don’t believe in putting too much pressure on your kids and I don’t expect a report full of A’s.

Son no 4 has always been the brainiac in the family and typically brings home reports which are full of A’s.  He was also recently elected cricket captain as well so he has a fairly full plate which of course comes with extra pressures.

So I am a really proud mum today and I know he will do an amazing job in his new position as Head Boy!

As you get older things start to, now how do I put this diplomatically, go south or sag. Especially after giving birth to 4 kids.

Kids say the funniest of things sometimes.  Mine are a little less funny nowadays that they are older but occasionally they say something that just makes me have a quiet chuckle.

My 2 youngest Sons recently started calling me Mother – no more Mom or Mommy – unless they need something of course – then it is “Mommy, Can I….”

We were having a conversation in the car last week when we were going through the weeks schedule.  It is exam time at school so I asked my Sons what exams they had over the next few days.

Of course Son no 3 and 4 were ragging each other about one thing or the other as usual. Son no 3 was reciting what exams he had on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday.  He couldn’t remember what exam he had on the following Tuesday though.

So Son no 4 accuses him of not knowing anything and how can he not know what he was writing on Tuesday.

Son no 3 then says “Well Mother doesn’t know what’s for dinner tonight so I recon I am better than her”.

I just had to laugh.

It’s not your place has been the theme at home his week.  I’ll explain…

We usually get up at around 5.30 in the morning. We all get bathed / showered etc.  Son no 3 sets the breakfast table, we sit and have breakfast, then we brush teeth and get into the car for the morning school run.  Most mornings this all runs smoothly and everyone is in a good mood.

This week has been different though.  Son no 4 has decided to change his position at the table and this has upset Son no 3. So chatter around the table has been met with comments like – “Stop looking at me / Dork / I Don’t want to look at your ugly face etc etc.”

I have done some illustrations below to help you visualise:

This first illustration shows our original seating layout – when we still had Son no 1 and 2 at home.  As you can see – Son no 4 sits on the right hand side.

The following illustration shows our current seating arrangement – it is just the 4 of us nowadays so there is loads of space at the table.

Son no 4 has decided to move from position 2 to position no 6.  No big deal really and hubby and I  have no issues with it.  Son no 3 of course is causing major problems over the move though.  He insists on setting a place for Son no 4 in position 2 every morning.  Son no 4 then comes into the kitchen and they snarl at each other for 5 minutes and then Son no 4 moves his place setting to position 6.

Then the 2 of them spend the rest of the time throwing derogatory comments at each other.  So by the time we get into the car – World War 3 and 4 has happened.


We told Son no 3 one morning that if he didn’t like it – he could go eat in the dining-room storeroom. (I say storeroom as our dining-room is currently home to the treadmill white elephant and loads of boxes and washing baskets etc.)  So he sat in the dining-room on his own.

Whatever hubby and I do or say – we are accused of favouring the other child.  There is just no way of winning this argument.