Why the blog?

Mummy-wise, things haven't gone too badly.....

I was a Montessori teacher for seven years before I embarked on the motherhood thing and, luckily for us all, those years taught me so much and influenced the way I did things with my daughters. I became passionate about giving children a good life, treating them with respect, (more about that later....), allowing them their dignity, appreciating who they are, preparing them for.... well, everything! My fantastic boss at that time (she is now my BF and godmother to UniGirl and 6thFormGirl) inspired me with her own passion on the same subject, and we still talk about it all...

And I also wanted a good relationship with my children, for my sake as well as theirs.

So what I'm saying is, aspects of Montessori have been so useful, and so important to me, and have made things so much easier than they might have been, I thought I'd like to share them. Who knows how things would have been had I not had the Montessori influence? Would it have entered my head, for instance, that it might not be a good idea to smack children? That shouting and smacking children gives them a very strange message about how we should all behave towards each other...

I'm not some kind of world authority on the subject, or any subject come to that...but some of this might actually turn out to be useful.

Isn't it great when your offspring know more than you do about stuff and they teach you things? Very helpful with the old interwebs...
I said to UniGirl, 'should I really sign my post like this, or is that a bit naff?' (Think old fashioned word like 'naff'' puts me firmly in my age group.) UniGirl said 'No, it's fine. That's exactly what people do Mum.'

The desire to start this blog came from some conversations during a day trip to see my family. I was going to go on my own, but my eldest daughter (UniGirl, 19) is back home from her first year at uni and, much to my delight, she decided to come with me to visit my two brothers and their gorgeous families.They have got seven children between them - Wonderful mayhem, though not all the children were there, only five of them....

One of my sisters-in-law straight away got into conversation with UniGirl about Virginia Woolf and Dickens and Shakespeare...
Both brothers are younger than me and I was the first of us to have children, so all the grown-ups were marvelling at how UniGirl and my other daughter (6thFormGirl, 16) had grown up and were such a delight....

UniGirl to 4 year old cousin: Have you ever seen a real zebra? At the zoo?
Cuzz: No. Can we go to the zoo next time you come over?
UniGirl: that would be fun.
Cuzz: can you drive us there?
UniGirl: I haven't got a car
Cuzz: Oh....You're not a proper grown-up.