The Last Word

SCHOOL DAYS

Today was a landmark day in the Rockliffe household, we found that our youngest got into the school of our choice and will be starting in September. What on earth he is doing going off to school at the age of two is beyond me….. Of course he isn’t two, he will be a month shy of his fifth birthday when he starts, but the time has gone so quickly I can’t quite get my head around the reality of the situation!

It doesn’t seem that long ago he was crawling around the floor covered in chocolate and cake crumbs… actually that was only two days ago but I digress!! The swiftness of time and how quickly

kids grow up astounds me at times. Our eldest is now nine years old ( going on 15) and it only seems a short while ago it was her getting excited for her first day at school! The years have just slipped by, almost unnoticeably, and she has moved through the school years without us really marking each one, it’s something that happens to everyone, the march of time, and yet here we are, at the point where, after this year, she will have two more school years and she will be at ‘BIG’ school!!! about school uniform and shoes and all the other gubbins that comes with it. Unfortunately, as we had a girl then a boy, that means there‘s no prospect of hand-me-downs so an expensive, trip to the uniform shop is on the cards. I guess we could try and fashion some trousers from one of his sister’s old school dresses but I’m not sure my wife’s middling sewing skills are up to it. Just as I was he’s pretty tall for his age so even though he has boy cousins that have kindly donated clothes and shoes over the years he has outgrown most of the age appropriate stuff already! Another thing he has - unfortuantely - inherited from me is a rather large head; he’s 4½ and wears aged 8-10 head gear!

One of the worst things about them starting school is the fact that they are no longer completely in your sphere of influence. At the moment pretty much everything they do, see or experience has, in one way or another, been vetted by you; you know who and what they are seeing and who they are coming into contact with and if you are not happy with a particular interaction you can put a stop to it pretty much straight away. Once they are at school though that control is lost and for all you know the boy/girl they are now best friends could be a serial killer in the making or a future best-person-ever but you don’t know which and you just have to let it play out. It’s a nightmare for my inner control freak!

Kids grow up! It’s inevitable and, however much you would like to, you can’t keep them at four years old and safely cocooned at home for eternity. You just have to put on a brave face in public and then every now and then take a bottle of whatever is your drink of choice, go and sit in a darkened room and scroll through all the baby pictures and videos.

“One of the worst things about them starting school is the fact that they are no longer completely in your sphere of influence.”

Phil Rockliffe