Thursday 4th June - European Election Day

Just a fairly standard day today with all the usual bits going on. My feet are starting to feel better, the blisters are healing, gosh they were biggies and bloody too (sorry gross I know!).

Jamie is having his school photo taken today, and that will be nice as we'll get a piccie of him at his new (ish) school. Jamie went to a private school between Deanshanger and Buckingham but we had to remove him from the school when he was being bullied. Despite several attempts with teachers and the then headteacher, letters, conversations and formal meetings, the situation did not improve and when his Year 4 teacher showed no support to him whatsoever we decided there was no option but to remove him.

He is now at our local primary school and loves it, yes there are problems here and there, it would be abnormal if there wasn't but he is happy and a happy child is going to learn better than an unhappy one. And the school is a happy place too.

Mike and I have questioned whether we did the right thing putting him in a private school, and feel we took the decision with the best of intentions, what we didn't bargain on was the children in that school being horrid! We all know that children who come from underprivileged backgrounds can have problems, but at the other end of the scale children who seem to have all of the advantages can be just as messed up. I personally feel that it there has to be a connection when the father of one of the main bullies of Jamie, let's call him Bryan Rabbit, at AWJS was never seen. Of course people have to make their own choices and if they choose working over their children that's their right, so long as that doesn't affect others, and I believe in this case it did.

My own view on children is there are really only a handful of things parents need to give children but two of the most important are love and time, back it up with a good set of values and an ability to communicate. If I look back and think about enjoyable days I've had in my life then the one I spent with Jamie in London in September 2007 would rank very high. We visited Shakespeare's Globe, the National Portrait Gallery (to look at the Tudor paintings) and went to Pizza Express. It was a really special day.

That got a little heavy! I am really looking forward to seeing his photo and the class photo.

We went off to vote in the Euro Election after dinner, and the polling station was pretty busy. I had to think seriously about who to vote for as I wasn't going to vote for either of the main parties (too angry at them about the expenses scandal), and I hate extremism in any guise, so was only left with 2 or 3 possibilities. I think it is so important to vote, so many people around the world don't have that right that I am going to use mine every time. Whatever happens in the result, I suspect The Labour Party are not going to do well!

Ciao

Sue

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(reading challenge 0/16 - currently reading Only Dad by Alan Titchmarsh)