News Update

I was just having a cup of tea and reading back through my blogs and realised that I have misinformed you all who read this. I never actually gave up work, despite thinking that I had to. My mum's friend came to my rescue. After Mum telling her my dilemma with Angus, she offered to look after him on the day I needed to work. So we went away on holidays and then when we returned, she started looking after him. I only did a short day for a couple of weeks until we knew he was OK, then I started back to almost a full day. So I was able to keep my job which I was really happy about, whilst knowing that Angus was getting looked after. As far as I can tell, Helen loves to walk, so pretty much while I'm at work, they just go off walking together. She walks to the cafe for a coffee, then on to the shops for a look around, then back home. I usually come back to them playing on the lounge floor, so I know Angus is quite content. Once he starts crawling and getting more adventurous, it may be a different story, but that's when I'll look into more formal childcare options for him. It's just been great to be able to keep just my one day per week and feel happy about the boys. It's so difficult for women to find a balance. I have friends who are in the full range of situations - from working full time with their kids in full-time care, to full-time stay at home mums, to some who are working 3 days a week. It doesn't seem to have any effect on the kids at all, as each family makes their own situation work for them, but for each of my friends it seems to be such a personal dilemma. In my opinion, it's part of today's society. Females are educated, often have a career prior to family and although you can have kids and maintain that career, it becomes a real juggling act and that takes commitment and a lot of personal belief that you are doing the right thing. This seems to be what me and my friends seem to have the most trouble with. Believing that the choice we have each made, is the right one, especially for our own kids and family. Hmmmm, who knows?

Anyway, we have had a wonderful day today taking the boys to the zoo. OK, Angus didn't really get it, but he was fascinated with the people and the birds and stuff, so that's nice and Tom had a lot of fun. We met our friends, Kylie and Lou (or Glue, as Thomas calls him - hee, hee) and their son Ryan, who is the same age as Tom. It was just a really nice day. The weather was beautiful, the company splendid, the zoo is a really nice place with lovely settings for the animals and it was just an easy activity to do with the kids and also have a chance to chat and spend some time together. I loved it. I love summer. Tomorrow we are going to head to the beach - bring it on!