Family | But I Smile Anyway...

Friday Fatigue!

15 Sep 2017 53 Comments

by Ritu in Children, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Happy, School, tired

Two weeks almost done…

And the kids aren’t even in full time yet!

Switching from Nursery hat to Reception hat is surprisingly tough, you know!

Even though these two years are in the Early Years Foundation Stage, they are both very different in terms of developmental milestones a child hits.

Nursery at 3-4 years old is a time for building confidence, looking at their personal, social, and emotional development. For us, with our extremely mixed cultural demographic, it is also a time for teaching spoken communication in English, and fostering understanding of simple concepts. The children need to learn how to play together, talk together, take turns, learn patience and perseverance.

Throughout the year there is emphasis placed on counting, and learning the sounds of the alphabet through play, and recognising their names too, with hopefully, attempts at writing it.

Reception at 4-5 years old, is a time to just consolidate these things above, but there is a high expectation to really build the academic learning foundation too. These children should be writing sentences by the end of the year, counting fluently to 20, and doing simple addition and subtraction. Oh, and hopefully they should be reading simple words and sentences too!

Within both groups we need to give them experiences to enhance their learning of the world around them, culture and community and technology. They need to experience ways to create in different ways too.

So, what impact does this have on me?

My expectations for each group have to be different.

I need to remember not to push my babies too hard, and to make sure my older babies are stretching themselves enough!

The nursery children are doing a couple of hours in the morning then the afternoon session are doing two hours. We have worked on settling them, and showing them how to keep busy, trying different things.

The reception class are still doing mornings only. They are learning about structure, and listening, and exploring their new environments.

But this doesn’t mean lots of free time! No!

We have to assess each child individually, to see where they are at the start of their academic life.

In Nursery it is for our records. In Reception it is for the National Base Line.

Yes, I can sit with a cuppa and go through my paperwork. But I am running back and forth between the two classrooms to confer with my colleagues. The path from my class to the printer is wearing thin.

And that teacher tiredness encompasses all in my profession, not just me!

And I attended my first Governors meeting too, which was actually not as daunting as I thought it would be!

I arrive home and the Mummy hat goes on. Dinners for the kids are already cooked by my dear Mother In Law, so that is great! But homework, housework, laundry, all still need doing. Making the lunches for the next day, and feeding myself and Hubby Dearest also takes priority.

Then I finally sit and can write for my blog! Ritu’s ‘Me!’ hat finally on!

My novel has a little bit left, but with the tiredness I am experiencing, I don’t want to try and finish it without a fresh brain!

So when I am yawning, and craving asleep before 10 pm, I am not fighting it at all!

Do you blame me?

Right, I’m off to finish my week!

Enjoy your weekend Peeps! I’m planning on enjoying mine!

I love our oldies!

14 Sep 2017 57 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Alcohol, Blog, Blogging, Funny, love, Oldies, Parents, Sex, Underpants, Wouldn't Change them

They are the most important people in your life for so many years, you almost idolise them, they can do no wrong.

Then you get older and realise that, much as you love them to bits, they are human too, their behaviour can be annoying, or comical even, things they say make you howl with laughter, even though they don’t understand why you are giggling.

A comment I made on a fellow blogger, the Cornfed Contessa‘s post this morning, brought some funny stories flooding back.

I’ll start with the one I recounted earlier.

1) Why wont it work?

We visited family, and after a ‘little’ tipple (she’s not a drinker at all usually!) my mum and aunt were washing dishes. They were finding it really hard to get the washing up liquid to froth up. Anyhow, the next morning, mum woke with a thumping headache (hangover anyone?!). My aunt called to see how she was. She explained the reason for the headache ( my cousin thought it would be a giggle to double up the measure of spirits in their drinks!) and they had been washing up with hand lotion instead of washing up liquid!

2) Tummy Drumming

As I said above, she is not really a drinker, neither is my Pops, but for whatever reason, every couple of years, they would have this company come visit, and would taste wine, and select a few bottles to buy (I’m still not sure why, but they did!) My brother, younger than me, loved the opportunity to ‘taste’ the wine too, but I was never that keen. Any way, sometimes at Christmas, they would open a bottle to share at dinner, and one time, I think it was stronger than they had anticipated, as by late afternoon, my mum was laying across the sofa, head on Pops’ belly, and gently drumming on his belly, giggling at the sound it made… oh it made us laugh, watching them!

3) Easy Access

Now my darling brother is a bit naughty, and he hasn’t stopped as he has got older. He used to go to a boarding school, and at his holidays and exeats (weekends home) he would bring his trunk full of washing home for mum to sort out. As he got older his style of underpants changed and he started to wear the Calvin Klein type boxers, fitted and snug etc. Pops was a devout y-fronter! As she ironed them (yes even our underpants were ironed, and to this day, I can’t stop doing ours either!) she admired them and said “Hmm, these look nice, I might get some for your dad…” “Easy access, innit mum!” my brother piped up and mum, in a world of her own answered “Yes.” before realising what he had said and the implication of her answer! Cue red face and a scolded brother, who was still laughing!

4) The Silent Finger

He is the paragon of peace, Mr Cool Calm and Collected, my Pops. I had never heard him use a bad word, in English or Punjabi, well not in front of us kids anyway. But I guess even peaceful people have their limits! Pops used to drive us everywhere, in fact he still does when he gets the chance. When he was younger, he would speed around and then as he realised that speed meant higher fuel costs, so he slowed right down, being Mr Sensible Driver (unless he really needed to press the accelerator to get somewhere fast!) One night, we were coming home from some function or another, and he was going sedately in the middle lane, minding his own business. after a while it became apparent that a person behind him was tail-gating, and then whenever he moved to give way, the driver went right behind him again. After 20 minutes of to-ing and frow-ing, Pops got fed up and quickly looked at the back seat. seeing we were asleep, (but I wasn’t!) he quickly gave the tail-gater, the middle finger, stepped down on that accelerator and lost the twit behind! I had to giggle, and he realised he had been caught. He shrugged, and just said, make sure you never do that!

5) We are human you know…

This has to be one of my favourite stories! Now as I said, my brother was a boarding school boy, and as he hit 6th form and A-levels, he was an attractive young man, with his own fair share of admirers. He used to play county level cricket and hockey, so Pops would ferry him around on weekends, around the country, to various matches. One evening, as they headed back, my brother, who hated to hide anything from our parents, decided to tell Pops about a girl he had started seeing. She wasn’t Indian, but an English girl, a fellow pupil at his school. Instead of getting angry, my Pops, who is peace personified, just said to my brother to remember that he should not disrespect her, to keep in his mind that she was someone’s daughter, someone’ s sister, and to treat her how he would want his own sister to be treated by a boy, and if he was to want to go that step further, to do the horizontal tango, to make sure he always used protection. Once this hurdle was crossed, my brother felt a bit more, comfortable, shall we say, discussing bedtime antics. “Pops,” he began, “so, do you and mum still, you know…” nudge, nudge, wink, wink! (at this stage of my brother recounting this conversation, I was blushing myself, did I really want to hear the answer?!) Pops, driving, gave a quick sideways glance at my brother and said “We are human, you know.” and smiled, then continued on their journey!

Like I said, I love our oldies, they really make us laugh! Wouldn’t change em for anything!

#SoCS Aug. 26/17 – When

26 Aug 2017 41 Comments

by Ritu in #SoCS, Children, Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #StreamofConsciousnessSaturday, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Family, Linda G Hill, Socs, Swimming, When

Linda’s prompt for #SoCS this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: Start with “WHEN.” Write whatever you’d like, but begin your post with the word “when.” Enjoy!

“When can we go swimming, Mummy?”

That’s a question I hear all the time, and have heard a lot over the last few year.

Kids love swimming and water. If we go anywhere, even for a night, the first question will be “Is there a swimming pool?”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love swimming, but the last few years, it has been less swimming and more eagle eyes in back of head, as I watched warily to make sure one of my brood didn’t drown.

Lil Man is actually pretty good, so he can head on up to the deep end, and dives in, swims around with confidence.

Lil Princess however, was a different story. She had learned how to swim, was doing really well, then I had to cancel the lessons as full-time teaching took its toll on after-school activities. She resorted to staying in the shallow end, or baby pool, splashing around, and pretending to swim (doing the arm movements, but hopping along the floor of the pool!).

I always felt bad, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

We have a couple of local pools, and when the holidays come the same old question rings out constantly: “When can we go swimming?”

I shouldn’t have a problem, but I do. Several.

I want to actually swim too, but can’t as I am on life guard duty.
The pools are full of crazy kids jumping in at random times, and, shock, horror, getting my hair wet!
I’d need to defuzz… and I hate having to do all that preening, just to enter a pool full of strangers!
Going there requires an effort I don’t always have, in lazy lounging holiday mode!
Public pools can be so…dirty!

Usually, when we go to visit my parents, there is a trip to the pool involved. Luckily my mum loves to swim too, and so we station ourselves, one with Flipper (Lil Man) and one with wannabe Mermaid (Lil Princess).

We swap over the hour or so we are there, and get a little chance to swim too.

This summer, the cries for swimming have been more intense.

Why?

Because Lil Princess has been taking swimming lessons at school, and, like they say you never forget how to ride a bike (not true…I’m sure I can’t any more!) it appears to be the same with swimming.

“Mummy, I want to show you how I swim! I’m nearly in the top group too!”

So, when in Birmingham the other week, we took them.

And what a pleasant surprise!

My daughter really can swim!

And we spent the whole time in the deep end, with the kids jumping off the diving boards, and swimming. It only took one of us to be life guard, freeing the other up to actually swim!

Because I was so happy to see that, I even got convinced to show them my diving. It’s been a long time since I dived, and, many moons ago, I was pretty good.

Well, I didn’t belly flop (that was Lil Princess’s domain this time!) but I forgot the pressure as you hit the water, and nearly twisted my neck the first time! It was marginally better the second.

Diving means my hair got wet too – another annoyance that I overcame!

She’s happy, she’s shown Mummy she can swim. And mummy is very proud of her.

But not everyone knows of her skills, and she needs to demonstrate them again, so now the request is being made elsewhere…

“When can we go swimming, Daddy?”

Yeah, you take them this time! The question is…When?

I Tried To Be Grown up! #ThrowbackThursday

24 Aug 2017 110 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, grown up, quinine, Tonic Water

Ever had those days when you think “Right, I really can’t keep being a big kid, I need to grow up, just a little…”
No? Me neither! Well, not often, anyway.
The other day, I had one of those moments.
I reached for a sugary soft drink in the fridge, then stopped and thought “No, I’ll have a more grown up cold drink, like my mum has… So I grabbed a can of Tonic Water(no gin!). This is a drink she would always order if we went out… This, or Bitter Lemon
I cracked open the can… And my reaction?

My mouth puckered, my tastebuds hollered at me “WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO US????”. Really mum? You willingly drink this? Maybe I needed to add gin!
The horribly familiar bitter taste stayed in my mouth, as I looked closer at the can.

ERM… “Masterfully made with Quinine”.
Really? No wonder my tongue was having horror flash backs… Quinine, the malaria drug of choice that we had to swig weekly on our summer holiday visits to family in Kenya!
I remember us trying to hide every week at that same time, when the quinine bottle came out, and as children, we had to drink the syrup… At least the tablets were down your throat quick flash, but that syrup liked to linger…
Uuurgh!!!

Reminiscing all those good times! #ThrowbackThursday

10 Aug 2017 68 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Childhood

That’s me!

Well, as I’m sat back at home, in the midst of my parents, and all things that remind me of growing up, even though they moved house, I felt it would be an ideal time to think about my childhood… and add some pictures into the mix too! (apologies if they are messily edited but I don’t know who would be happy to be included on the blog and who wouldn’t, so I have tried to blur faces out as best I can, apart from my mug anyway!)

I think I’m one of the luckiest people alive to have been been born into the family that I have. If you have read my blog from the early days, you’ll know how much my parents, and family mean to me. They have given my brother and me a most amazing upbringing, colourful and loving, with so much family mad culture thrown in, so that despite being in a different country, we missed out on nothing!

We spent most weekends visiting various members of the extended family, there was always something going on, from weddings, to new babies, to birthdays, to deaths, never a quiet moment!

In fact, having such a large family it was inevitable that there would be something going on. My brother was a sportsman so a lot of his weekends were taken up with training and matches, so Pops would literally split himself in two, dropping my brother, then taking us places, and picking my brother up, before getting us… This was the era of one car per family, it’s how things were done!

I recall one year where, I’m not sure I know the exact number, but I believe we had something like 50 odd invitations to weddings and functions… And on one occasion there were two weddings on one weekend. Now our Indian weddings aren’t a one day affair, we have a week long celebration. These two weddings were in two different towns, one near London and one in Birmingham, where we lived. I recall being picked up from school and getting changed in it, en route to,London, on a 2 hour journey, attending one pre wedding function, then falling asleep in the car in the early hours of the morning, on the way home. A little sleep then up again for the other wedding in Birmingham on the Saturday. Then another trek back to London on Sunday morning for the actual wedding day there!

Now me as a child, well. I was a little imp, from all the stories I hear! I didn’t stop chattering away, in fact I would apparently follow people, toddling after the, saying “Hello!” until they replied! Mum always tells of a story where they were pushing me around in a pram and two Welsh ladies followed them around, thinking I was like a doll! They asked if they could take me home with them! Obviously Pops and mum said no!

Me at around 6 months with my eldest aunt and one of my first cousins!

In a Gurdwara, a Sikh temple, men sit in one side, and ladies on the other. At weddings it was, and still is quite usual for children to cross back and forth, from parent to parent, bored of sitting for 2-3 hours. One wedding, I was doing just this, and at one stage mum glanced over to Pops to see where I was, but I wasn’t there! They caught each other’s eye mad realised I wasn’t in the room. I’m not sure how old I was, 2 maybe, but after scouring the temple, they ventured outside and saw me on the pavement, holding an English man’s hand, being brought back to the temple. He had seen me toddling down the road, and seeing no one with me, assumed I would have come from the temple which was a few metres away. Thankfully, those were the good old days, kindness prevailed, and I was brought back to my parents… Not whisked away! Silly child that I was!

My gorgeous mum and I

Oh, and wasn’t I the most difficult child, for my mum, when it came to eating! I was a Nightmare!!! Being the first child, my mum went through hell with me, she’d make all this amazing fresh food, and I would refuse it, milk? Nah! Ice cream, Yes please! She went to the doctors, worried for my health. The doctor apparently asked if I was happy, energetic, normal generally, and mum said yes. The doctor looked at her and asked why on earth she was worrying for then! When my own children did the same to me, she said “It’s payback time!”

We grew up with many other children around us, it was a great time to be a kid! And due to the fact that my Pops was the youngest of a few siblings, it meant that some of my cousins were older than him! So I had what we call nephews and nieces, the children of our first cousins, the same age as me! To confuse yourself further, read here!

Me with two of my cousins children, my nephews!

There were so many of us, that fun always ensued but there was also a fair share of arguments too! I remember one time specifically. I was, and am, a calm person, but like all big sisters, I HATED my little brother at that time. Still, he was my little brother, and I did love him really, so once, I heard some of the kids picking on him. I stormed out and said if they carried on, said that once again, I’d punch said child in the mouth. I’m not violent, AT ALL! But the kid played my bluff and said whatever he had been saying, again. And I didn’t hold back. One good punch to the teeth, and there was blood everywhere! Luckily he didn’t hit me back! I think he was in shock that I actually carried out the threat! And this is how much of a goody two shoes I was…when he went to his mum and told of me, no one believed him, as I could NEVER do something like that!!!! We still laugh about it to this day.. Yes, he is still talking to me!!!

I could go on, and on, and on about growing up, but for today, I’ll stop here, over the next couple of days I’ll aquaint to you to my private school life, and my summers in Kenya too! I hope I haven’t bored you too much, but enjoyed retelling these stories!