I dropped my bucket on him by accident …
Felt like a productive day today, Josiah went off to Start Right and the girls and I got lots of little jobs done; letters written, a tiny bit of writing in the Greek project books to go with the recipes, then some banking before taking Anna to school for the afternoon.
Steve was back for a nice long lunch, then when he disappeared again Abbie & Joe played gamecube while I cleaned bathrooms – then we went off to pick Anna up and go to Grandma’s for tea. As predicted, she really enjoyed Set, and we enjoyed spending time with her.
A first for me and Joe, we sent an invitation to a friend he’s made at Start Right to come over and play sometime. Would you believe, the children have, until now, never made friends with anyone whose parent I didn’t know at least a little bit – at least, not to the extent of wanting to invite them over. Marginally amusing that it’s Josiah who has done it!
Anyway, he came home saying he’d delivered the invitation but that his little friend didn’t want to come here any more. It transpired, much later in the day, that the true story was that he’d dropped his bucket on his friend by accident somehow, and his friend had responded by saying that he didn’t want to come and play any more. For some reason Joe didn’t get a chance to say sorry, and I think he’d been a bit upset by the whole thing, judging by the way it came out. I hadn’t been to pick him up, Steve had, and he didn’t notice anything, so it was probably something that happened at some time during the morning. Anyway, Joe seemed happy at the suggestion that saying sorry on Thursday would probably put things right … and by then I expect his little friend will have forgotten all about it.
January 31st, 2005 at 19:44
Would that be the “I don’t want to play with you any more” stage then? I hated it when Big went through that – she seems to be over it now. They get heartbroken in moments, it lasts variables amounts of time, they are deeply horrid to each other, and suddenly, just as you are most despairing, it’s all happiness again.
Big made a friend of her own at nursery when she was 8 months old. Pat worked at the bank as well, which is how come A was at the nursery, but we didn’t know each other at all before the two children started aiming at each other when learning to crawl. They are still very close.
January 31st, 2005 at 22:06
Ah, bless. It’s all so fragile at that stage. I’m not very good at dealing with the friends-where-you-don’t-know-the-parents bit. I’m not that keen on Hannah going to people’s homes, if I haven’t met them, and been their myself at least once, so that makes me in turn feel anxious about inviting other kids if I don’t know the parents. Although we’ve done it a couple of times, and the parents have been fine about it.
February 1st, 2005 at 9:16
prospect too scary to consider for now. Children have only ever been left at the house of my parents or their previous nanny, not even at friends I know without me or Ady there. I know they are too closeted and will still be living at home in their fifties – spending their days together instead of getting out there and finding spouses but I just don’t think any of us are ready for it just yet!
And I know it probably was an accident but the bucket dropping sounds like one of Davies’ ‘I hit Tarly by accident cos I didn’t see her there’ explanations after he has just lumped her one for something!
February 1st, 2005 at 9:20
tbh if the invitation had come from the little friend I would only let Josiah go if I went too, at least the first time. You know, so that I could make value judgements based on what car they drive, area of the city they live in, how clean the house is, that sort of thing
I hope that Little Friend’s parents would do the same. Will have to see what happens, we haven’t had a reply/phonecall yet!
February 1st, 2005 at 10:28
Yes, but what would you do if it was Anna, say? I’m begining to fear that the level of protection I used when Hannah was 4, isn’t really so appropriate for an 8 year old. And Bob is even worse than me.
February 1st, 2005 at 10:44
I think I’d do exactly the same, the first time. Or at least ask if I could stay for a cup of coffee or something when I dropped her off, then if it didn’t feel okay to me I’d take her home again. It’s never happened with the girls though, so that’s completely theoretical, I can’t honestly say.