All mothers, like me, probably dread these few little words...Can I have a word please?...when you have children at school/pre-school.
William was a breeze - the only time his teachers needed to talk to me was when he had bashed his head or something and the accident book needed signing. Growing up cuts and grazes.
With Lucy it is different...
The first time I had the words..."Can I have a word please, Mrs Smathers" was shortly after she first started at pre-school, just after her second birthday.
With this particular incident, Lucy was pushing other children up against the wall so that she could take their toys off them! Not my proudest moment in motherhood but at least no one is going to get one over on Lucy, oh no - this little cookie can look after herself!
This was reconfirmed to me the other week. Lucy has two best friends at pre-school, Lily and Alex. Alex's Mummy was telling me that being a boy he can be a bit aggressive with his play sometimes and his Mummy was a bit concerned that he was a bit rough with the other children. As it concerned her, she had a word at the pre-school with the teachers and promptly got the response "I really wouldn't worry - Lucy and Lily are more than capable of looking after themselves and standing their ground".
Anyway, the other day I got to pre-school and the deputy manager caught me, "Can I have a word please, Mrs Smathers?".
Filled with dread over what Lucy had done, the story started - they were doing an activity (has she fallen and hit herself?), they were cutting out certain objects (has she cut herself?) and then the teacher suddenly noticed that Lily and Lucy were both laughing with big clumps of hair in their hands!!!!
Apparently they had taken to cutting each other's hair - both blaming the other and had ended up with clumps of hair missing. Ooooooppps! Lucy tends to have her hair up most of the time so the bits missing at the back can be easily covered up but, poor Lily who has a beautiful blonde bob and straight fringe now has a wonky fringe and an extended one at that with the missing bits at the side. Obviously Lucy is not going to be the next Nicky Clarke!
Relief at the fact that Lucy or someone else wasn't hurt turned to giggles as I imagined the horrified expression of the teacher when she noticed the two little girls with scissors and hair in their hands!
Like buses, these things tend to come together and again today I got the still dreaded words "Can I have a word please, Mrs Smathers?". This time however Lucy had hurt herself and had fallen quite badly while playing outside - she had bashed her forehead quite badly and there is already a lump and a big bruise - just a shame that there is a clump of hair missing there to cover it up!