Thursday 24 July 2008

Another lovely day at the beach!






We have been really enjoying the hot weather, and spent this afternoon on the beach with our friends - perfect. I'm hoping next week will be as good because my brother and his family are coming up and we never have good weather when they come - his partner doesn't believe it ever gets warm in Scotland.
A has been enjoying going to a drama group every morning this week, classes put on for the school holidays, and subsidised by the council - so very inexpensive. It has actually felt quite good to have a bit of structure to our week. From what she's told me the classes have been mainly drama games and improvisation, my idea of hell! But A has had a great time. This is exactly the kind of thing she loves. There was the usual nervousness about first going in, which is totally understandable, but one of her old classmates was going too, so that helped. Anyway, she seems to have made lots of new friends. This is something she is very good at, and I'm so glad because I'm not the most sociable person and would hate that to hold her back in any way.


A has also been rehearsing for a show she is going to be in at the local drama club - Roald Dahl's 'Revolting Rhymes'. They did it last year and it went down really well, so are putting it on again for a few nights. A gets to play a bratty version of Goldilocks, which she thoroughly enjoys!
Bedtime is becoming a bit of an issue, and I'm not sure how I'm going to play this one. I've been letting it go - not too worried about when she goes - the usual way I would in the school holidays, but of course these holidays aren't going to end! I'm torn really, part of me really wants to trust her to do what she needs and let her decide when to go, but there's another part thats going 'no! this is my time!!' I suppose thats the way its always been - once she's in bed I get a bit of time for myself. As a lone parent who spends a lot of time with my child (and it will be even more now she's not at school) I felt I needed that couple of hours at the end of the day. Another point is that I often watch things on TV later in the evening that I wouldn't be happy for her to watch.
I'm going to have to make a decision soon because she needs some clarity, either have a definate bedtime (tricky, as our lives are becoming much more fluid without the school timetable) or change my way of thinking about it all. Will have to think on this one...

5 comments:

Hannah said...

We have the same kind of issues about bedtime here too. No resolve has been reached yet although the late night novelty did wear off and we make special allowances for eachother for particular things like post watershed tv or time to ourselves (C and I both make demands for that sometimes!). I hope you find something that works for you both :o)

stefndawniy said...

hiya
we have the same issue here too - for ages now I've let it run , the girls go when they're ready, but I do miss time out at night though.
Now after a few months of doing it the girls have actually started to go earlier because they've been feeling tired and have started now to do their own bedtime thing at 9.30 in the week . . . . I find myself staying up later and later as I enjoy no kids time lol
hope you sort something :-)

K said...

Thanks for your comments, I'm sure we'll work something out between us, I'll keep posting on it as things progress.
It is good to know I'm not alone though! xx

Elizabeth (My Reading World) said...

Hello! All parents have this desicion to make--and even the married folk want/need time off in the evening. Our two are still young yet-but I'll probably do what my mom did when we were about 8--she just set a time for us to go to our rooms in the evening-we could read or do something quietly for an hour or so before lights out.

K said...

hi Elizabeth, yes - something like that might work. Its just deciding whether to have a definate 'rule' or allow A to make the decisions herself. I don't doubt she'd reach a point where she goes at a reasonable time to get enough sleep, its just whether I can cope with getting to that point!! I think we'll need to have a few discussions about it. x