So 16 years and one day ago I gave birth to my first child. He was a tiny little thing and I clearly remember the nurses bringing him back to me after all the usual checks and cleaning etc and seeing him laying in his crib with a little hat thing on his head and a tiny nappy that seemed to cover most of his body. Now, well now he’s a great big log of a thing 
standing around 6foot tall (and still growing) weighing probably about 100kg and needing shoes the size of surfboards. He’s my little man no more.
Yesterday - his 16th birthday. After wanting it for so long, he was able to get his drivers licence - the first step on the road to his being his own self-sufficient man (well at least when he gets his Ps and I let him use the car )
So after I got home from work and with a grin a mile wide on his face he showed me his licence and I threw him the car keys and off we went for a little drive - thankfully I live in a fairly rural town so we could hit the back streets and not worry about other cars but that will come soon enough - with all the driving I do for the kids sport he’ll get plenty of practice - plus he’s been driving around his dad’s property for a while anyway
For now though, I’m gonna go and look back at some old photos and remember how it used to be
Technorati Tags: driver licence, driving, kids, learners permit
So it’s late Saturday afternoon, I’ve been at work most of the day (after another early start - and a late night last night after basketball) so I’m pretty damn tired. It’s been one of those days.
While I was at work I got a call from my son who tells me that he accidentally turned the power off to my freezer last night before we all went out - I of course didn’t notice it last night or early this morning before I left so everything defrosted - which totally sucked - not only was there water everywhere, but there’s was a few dollars worth of frozen stuff in there that now is no good at all.
Now I’m trying to organise my kids - I have two at home and one at her nanas. One wants to go down there as well - so they’ll both stay the night which means only having my son at home tonight - all that’s fine, but I need to also try and organise it so I’m covered for tomorrow. I have to get my son to his job early in the morning - then one of my daughters to her basketball training - and figure out what to do with the third child. The biggest pain of it all is the timing - my son’s job and my daughters basketball are within 5 minutes of each other but the timing means three trips there and back (a reasonable distance) one to get my son to work, come back - wait an hour or so and take my daughter to basketball, come home and then go back again late tomorrow afternoon to pick my son up. And I really want a sleep in.
Perhaps if I’m really lucky I’ll be able to talk the kid’s dad into taking my boy to his work, which means only two trips there and back for me (after picking my daughter up first from her grandparents) and a bit later start so a semi-sleep in. Here’s hoping luck is on my side and he’ll do it for me. This getting kids to and from is probably my single biggest problem with being a single mum. Expenses aside it’s just a pain trying to figure out who needs to be where at what time and how I plan my routes to get them there.
Technorati Tags: driving, Parenting, single moms, single mum
When you’re a parent of teens, and ’specially if you’re a single parent of teenagers it truly seems that you spend half your life driving them from one place to the next.
As a single mum it always falls to me to get the kids from point a to b- their dad, may, once in a blue moon, decide he does have time to run them around but it’s sometimes not worth the effort even to ask (that even counts when the kids stay at his place, if they have somewhere to go - sport etc, I have to go to their dads to pick them up and then take them)
Take today for instance.
I left for work just after 5am this morning and finished work with just enough time to spare to pick the kids up from school on my way home (thankfully on those early morning starts I can get someone to take them to school for me) on the way home I dropped my son off at his martial arts (after a detour to my mum’s house so he could get changed) then I brought the girls home with me. In about an hour I’ll have to take off again to go and pick him up, only to come home and quickly feed them all before again turning around and taking my daughter to her basketball training, I’ll stay there for the two odd hours cause it’s just that bit too far away to come home in between. Once she’s finished we’ll get home around 10-10:30 tonight where I’ll probably fall straight into bed (after a 4am rising this morning) only to wake up and have to get them off to school again tomorrow, on my way to work, then on the way home from work I’ll pick them up, go back near to where I just came from so I can take them all shopping for those annoying things like school shoes - geez I wish they’d stop growing - of course the one good thing about tomorrow being Wednesday though is that it means I don’t have any sport etc to get them too - it’s our one day/night of the week where we actually get to stay home.
This of course brings to mind a really cool, funny and true email I received quite awhile ago about all the mother’s do, and if I ever find it again I’ll share it with you.
Technorati Tags: driving, Parenting, single mum
