The Challenges of Having Children & 2023 School Photo's

So I haven't blogged in about 2 weeks and posted nothing since the kids all went back to school. This is primarily because it has been a pretty stressful couple of weeks with so much going on with the family that of an evening when I would normally do the blog, I have just wanted to crash out and get some R&R. Honestly when you have children they really should supply an owners manual to help you deal with some of the situations you find yourself in.

Anyway the good news is that all the kids have now settled back in to school and for Joshua it is now his final GSCE year. After all the issues we had with his Spanish teacher last year (which is now resolved), he has started this year clashing with his construction teacher. Within the first week back he had picked up 14 "C" points and 3 detentions, hence he has been on report for 2 weeks. On Tuesday I had a progress evening with the school about him and currently he is on track for 1 GSCS (out of 6) and 2 BTech's which just isn't good enough. He is literally only 1 grade away from getting the other 5 GSCE's but really has to knuckle down. We have put in place a strict revision plan for this year and he has now agreed to go to the after school interventions. Also the report is really working as the back end of last week was exceptional with him getting "1"'s across the board. Let's just hope it is not too little too late!!!

Brandon has had a tough couple of weeks as he has again split up from his girlfriend who he has been seeing for about 9 months. I won't get in to the details of what she did on social media but it wasn't nice and poor Brandon was the innocent party who was very emotionally affected by it. So much so he missed a couple of lessons at school and has subsequently now taken a sabbatical from football for a couple of weeks to get his head sorted out. His outlet seems to be the gym and he has thrown himself in to that at least 4 or 5 times a week, but unfortunately I brought him up a lot like me and he bottles everything up inside showing no emotion and not wanting to talk to anyone. So it's tough helping him through these difficult times. I think we are at a turning point though and he is talking about going back to watch his football team play soon.

Then there is Holly - right she is 9 years old and has just started "spotting" with her monthly cycle. How can that be at 9 years old!!! Tina ha changed her work hours and is no longer doing nights and now works 4pm to 12pm 4 nights a week. So one night whilst she was at work Holly came up to me saying she wasn't feeling well and there was some blood in her underwear!!!! This is one that I really could have done with Tina dealing with.

So as you can see a lot going on with the kiddies and Tina's work pattern changing and then to top it all off a few worries with my work as they announced 1000 people going from Dunton and potentially my position being displaced!

On a positive note Joshua is back in rugby and had his first league match last week with a very good 19-10 win. Not many pictures of him as he is either right in the middle of the scrum (being front row) or hoisting someone in to orbit for a line out. Holly is enjoying her new team at Academy but they only have 7 players so if 1 player drops out for any reason then her games are being cancelled.

Joshua's final school picture from Year 11. Haven't received the official print yet so it still has the watermark on it.

Brandon's Year 10 school picture and desperately trying not to smile!

Joshua and Tristan can certainly get some height when lifting their team mate up for a line out!

We don't get many pictures of him as he is often right in the middle of the scrum.

He did finally come to his senses though and has now ordered a head guard for the next game.