mothers on the verge

I'm in the library with Firstborn and the Small(er) One. This is a regular thing as I'm an unashamed bookworm and hey, we're in the middle of The Crunch so Waterstone's isn't looking like a good option right now. But I think I may be flexing my Waterstones loyalty card more often in future. Why? Because something weird is happening to my children and I think there's a high probability we're not so welcome in the library anymore. So, we're browsing the CD racks. Firstborn holds up some ghastly heavy metal CD with a bleeding Jesus emblazoned all over it. I wince. No, not likely, don't think we're taking that one home today, my love. "But Mummy!" "No, darling. Put it back please." "Mummy!" "No." "MUMMY!" "No, sweetie. Go look at the Sugababes CD's over there instead. Don't think you'd like that one. It's way too shouty." "But Mummy, it's got Jesus on it! We have to ...

I'm starting to wonder if this religion thing has gone too far. For those of you new to this blog, both my kids go to Catholic school, in part due to to Alpha having had a satisfying and well-rounded Catholic education and being keen to pass this on to his girls. I, on the other hand, had an entirely secular education (despite being baptised a Catholic) and since then have bumbled along merrily trying to find meaning through a variety of different life-affirming activities (drinking, shopping etc). I have been all for it. After all, the rigour of a Catholic education is less likely to result in the girls sneaking off to drink Alcopops in the local bus shelter at the age of 12 (or maybe I'm deluding myself). But recent events have made me think that maybe there is a happier medium to be found. One worrying new development is a new game the girls have started to play, called 'The Priest'. This involves one of them standing on the top bunk in their room clutching a bible, ...

Had a shitty week this week. It started with a letter arriving in the post. A normal, white envelope, like, so what? But this was no ordinary envelope, for it contained the key to freedom, the end of scrimping and saving to pay expensive private daycare fees, the answer to having to take two children to different schools at different ends of the borough every day of the week, a means for the girls to spend more time together - oh yes, this letter had been eagerly awaited for a while. This oh-so-important letter was from Firstborn's school in response to our application to get the Small(er) One into the nursery class at the same esteemed (and free state school) establishment. We were reasonably confident about it because we fulfil the top three criteria to get in - practicing Catholics in the parish, live in the area, and last but not least, Firstborn is already there and they have a sibling priority policy. BUT THE SMALL(ER) ONE WAS REJECTED! Yes, rejected, the utter tossing @*?$!!...