The satisfaction of .. stationery

Warning to all readers: this blog is about being a Working Mum. If that topic bores you, please leave now.


I've had a week off work. Thus, time to do things I can't normally do. Very important things, like:

• walk with my sons INTO their classrooms rather than dropping them off at the school fence and madly driving away


• saying 'hello' to my sons' teachers (and er, introducing myself in one case)


• being available to other mothers in the schoolyard. (One screamed out 'Michelle! Michelle!' and ran me down on the asphalt, to report that she had one of Sam's socks at her house and did I want it back? It was a grey sock, with a green grid pattern over it, and skull and cross bones picture on top. Obviously I never wanted to see it again.)

I also had the chance to see my son Able's pencil case, as he dutifully prepared his desk for the day's work. The pencil case was a SHREDDED MESS! It looked like something a dinosaur had chewed up and spat out.

"Able," I said, "Is that your pencil case? How long have you had that?"

He shrugged his shoulders, as any 10 year old will. "Would you like a new one?" I asked. He nodded his head eagerly.

The poor mite! The poor, poor mite with his worn, torn pencil case. Aaaaaaaaaaargh. What's the use of two working parents if they can't outfit you with the latest greatest pencil case? [Insert Working Mothers' Guilt here].

Needless to say, I was at the mall just 15 minutes later. Able now has a brand new, squeaky clean (and very cool black) pencil case.

Adequate stationery is important. So very important. And so is taking the time to explore your child's school life. Some children are just 'too cool' to tell you everything: I'm vowing to poke my nose in more often (and check how that pencil case is going).