New Hope

Yesterday was a difficult day. At my CAB session I had a young man who refused to leave my room because he had no money.

What was I supposed to do? I am only a volunteer here. I have done all that I could to help him, as the last person he saw did, but if he did not help himself to resolve the situation he was in, what could we do?

Do we let him keep coming back and beg for emergency money?

Then you realize that at the coalface of this "Big Society" answers are not always easy.

Today was a much better day. On the day that we read of 50% of five-year-old boys are falling behind, I had six (SIX!) new mothers at our Toddler Group.

Many are first-time mothers. It was especially interesting (encouraging, even) to see two mothers using the "time-out" for misbehaving two-year-olds. There is hope.

I also noted to a childminder that one of her charges was really good at looking after himself (took off his coat, hung it up on another child's pushchair). It appears that he was not like that when he first came to her.

Nobody taught him how to do things that children his age should be able to do. Now he shows that he could start looking after himself.

Made me think, again, that perhaps some children are better off being taken care of by such experienced childminders who give them structure, discipline and self-esteem whilst the mother works to earn her keep.

The alternative could be a child at home 24/7 with a mum who's watching TV, smoking and/or on the phone constantly while the child is left to TV, computer and junk food.

Ah, just some thought based on my observations.

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