Morning everyone, yes it is morning although you wouldn't know it because it is so dark and miserable out there. My six year old daughter is preparing for her second school council meeting this week. She takes her role very seriously. She has prepared a preliminary list of ideas to discuss this morning. The issues that concern her are the levels of noise in the dinner hall at lunch time, the Diamond Jubilee celebration plans and a potential school trip to the Aquarium. She has also been approached by other class members about the dinner ladies. Apparently the staff have changed and her classmates feel that they no longer listen to them when they say they don't want peas!
She had a friend over for tea last night, this friend just 'had' to come because my daughter has the episode of icarly with One Direction on it! They both sang that 'you light up my life like nobody else' song on the way home and then dressed up in princess dresses with plastic high heels after they had watched the programme. There was no make up last night because it was a school night, but the friend did show us her beautifully painted toe nails, complete with little leaf design.
When my daughter goes to a birthday party, she carefully selects a spangly party frock, she has me paint her nails and put on some silver glitter hair spray. She wears some discreet silver eye shadow, a little pink blush and some lip gloss. The final accessory which is very important, is the handbag with lipstick and fake mobile phone inside and some random toy.
On Saturday mornings my daughter plays tag rugby. She wears jogging bottoms and a jumper. Black trainers because they get muddy and she rarely even brushes her hair before she goes because it starts at 9.30am (its Saturday!) She plays a mean game of tag rugby and is a great lines woman and whistle blower too. My girl devours each day and whatever comes her way. She is exposed to so much and is processing information and drawing and revising her conclusions all the time. As her parent I obviously want the absolute best for her, I want her to be a strong, happy, independent and successful adult. I think my role is to gradually expose her to all the stuff in the world and be there at her side to explain things and give her a sense of security as she explores the big bad world. I think I could be criticized for allowing things to move too fast. In many ways she leads the way and I run along behind. This tactic could be a real mistake. I have done what comes naturally and followed my gut instincts and it is so hard to know what is the best approach for each individual child. It's nerve wracking stuff this parenting!

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