SUICIDE WATCH. That's the prison name for it.
I find myself today on Suicide Watch, maybe you too if you saw on the news about the two families whose sons had both committed suicide aged 17. They lived nearby each other but weren't friends or anything. They just had the one thing in common. They'd both been pulled up separately by the police, who classed them as adults.
One of the lads...
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
What letter does your surname begin with, the one you had when you were at school?
Funny question.
When you become a foster carer you get even more interested in all the things that make a difference to how a child turns out.
The argument about nature versus nurture still goes on, but a new book I'm reading at the moment about babies brains says that it's widely thought nowadays there's a...
Saturday, April 13, 2013
You know that moment at the end of a meal, where you're all sat around the table with empty plates. Somebody (and it used to be me) will start stacking the plates. Scraping any major leftovers onto the top plate.
Then the pile of plates gets carried to the sink for the washing up. Only, not any more. Not in our house anyway. Maybe not in yours any more after I explain.
We've got a child...
Saturday, April 06, 2013
Who are the families of the children we foster? What are they like?
Many seem to belong to the "precarious proletariat".
I looked this up, sat at my kitchen table in my dressing gown at 5.05am on a Saturday morning, with my second cup of tea, the first cup supped while doing kitchen jobs; sweeping the floor, emptying the bin. If you know where my other slipper is, only bare feet...
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Not Giving a Stuff What Other People Think
"It's not my child, I'm his foster carer."
How many times do we wish we could tell the people in supermarkets or on the bus, that the child who's just told us to F off is not the by-product of our lifetime endeavour.
Bit like that car sticker you see on battered Fiestas "My Other Car Is A Porsche", you want to say "My real children are polite, kind and well behaved."
I was...