Well, I am now the mother of a high school kid. WHAT THE HELL? I remember being in high school, like it was yesterday. I also remember being massively pregnant with Simon (who was either a Simon or an Olivia at that point) and absolutely knowing that I was destined to be pregnant for ever and ever and that this baby was never coming out. But it did come out and now it's in high school. Show's over, people!

Except that it's big transitions like these that show you that the show is never really over. Simon was very nervous about that first day and found the whole first week pretty stressful. He came up against some difficulties that needed to be dealt with and found that he was the one who had to do that. He has had to work out school buses, find teacher's staff rooms, and ask other people for directions. Simon is actually incredibly shy in that respect, he would rather not know what was going on than draw attention to himself by way of asking questions. This is a new stage of parenting for me. I've always made sure that I step back a bit and don't rush in to solve my kids' problems before they have tried to do it themselves. But now I really can't step in much at all. No one wants their mum running up to high school to sort things out. And he has to learn to sort things out himself (to a certain extent). But it's quite hard going from knowing pretty much everything your child does to only hearing about the things they choose to tell you.

I start my new job in 2 weeks time and I'm getting fairly nervous... Now that it's so close I'm suddenly finding great peace in being a stay at home parent. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to stay at home with the kids full time, but being at home with babies and toddlers ain't no picnic. But I am enjoying my days now, with an empty house in which to potter and meals to be able to make from scratch and cakes to bake for the children's afternoon tea. I'm very glad my job is part time, I have no idea how people function with 2 parents working full time. My hat is off to them because I would fall in a heap.