dottyspots

……wandering in the street. I was having a bit of a rest earlier and heard a small child screaming outside. I assumed that they were having a tantrum and that a relevant adult was dealing. The screaming continued, so I looked out and saw a little girl standing across the road screaming and screaming. I looked up and down the street and couldn’t see anything, so I went out.

I crossed over to her and asked her where her mum was, but she was only around 2 years old and clearly couldn’t talk particularly clearly. I asked her where her house was and couldn’t understand what she said, so I took her hand and walked down the street with her (in my socks). We got to the corner with another street where a load of children were playing - and as children generally know other children (even littlies, as they’ll know the tiny brothers and sisters who don’t go out) I asked them if they knew who she was. There was a fair few of them out and none of them recognised her, which I thought was a little strange.

At which point she pulled a mobile phone (!) out of her pocket. Sooooooo, I had a look in that and tried one of the numbers but there was insufficient credit, so I took her hand again and walked back to my house to use my phone to try a number, now with an entourage of local children. As we were going into the house a young man, maybe early 20s, possibly late teens, ran up and claimed that she was his girlfriend’s daughter.

Trying to keep as calm as I could I commented that she really shouldn’t be wandering the streets. He replied that his cousin had let her out of the garden. I said that perhaps they should keep an eye on said cousing, at which point he told me that she was 25.

?!!!!!!

I took a deep breath and said that such a small child should not be wandering the streets and that perhaps the cousin wasn’t the best person to leave her with and that they were incredibly lucky that I’d taken the time to go out to her (as plenty of other people must have been curtain-twitching) as she had been wandering around next to a road - and did he know she had a mobile phone? To which point he tutted and said she must have nicked it.

:0(

Sadly this isn’t an isolated occurence - it’s not the first time I’ve come across similar incidences and is one of the reasons I found detached youth work so depressing on occasion……

It’s been a nice, if a little tiring, day. Rik took R. to his Gran’s on the way to work and I left the house for when Erk had to leave for school anyway. Nin and I ended up catching a coach to the next village. I was stood at the bus-stop waiting. A coach pulled up and I ignored it until the driver popped his head out the door and asked if I was getting on as I usually went to where he was going. It was then that I noticed in the front that there was a card with a destination. Turns out the coach only runs term-time. It was nice of him to stop and ask though.

Nin was thrilled, she clearly doesn’t remember being on a coach before (she was very, very young the last time she went on one) and was very excited about climbing up the steps – and very conscientious at climbing down them when we reached our destination :0)

She really loved playgroup, as ever, playing with the bricks and painting with her hands and the leaves provided for leaf prints. Unfortunately circle time just didn’t seem to ‘click’ this week – my fault, I wrote it – but it just didn’t seem to sit right, so I’ve had to go back to the drawing board for something that will sit a little better with such very small children. So lots of action-based verses to try to engage their bodies a little more. It’s a learning process for me to and I’ve actually found it a very useful exercise, meaning that I think a little more carefully about how littlies experience the world.

Afterwards we went back to Kris’ for a spot of lunch before I had to get home ready for Erk returning. My feet have been suffering a bit of late and I really wasn’t looking forward to this – not least because Nin was clearly pretty shattered – but luckily Rik phoned to say he was picking R. up early, so could pick me up too and get us all home for 3.30pm.

I have to admit that I don’t like this having to be at home at 3.30pm everyday lark – I’m just not used to having to do that! I am very rarely, if ever, late to anything I choose to attend, but I don’t like *having* to be somewhere when I can think of more interesting things to do.

Dinner was some very nice pork chops from the farmer’s market, with courgettes (from the garden) fried in butter and garlic and a mix of tomatoes from both Kris’ and my garden mixed in with couscous. It was lovely :0)

Nin went up to bed early as *still* hadn’t had a nap by this point and so clearly needed some sleep, closely followed by an overtired Erk too (judging by the level of giggling, burping and general impoliteness which finally went past the point of my patience). He was asleep shortly afterwards, so he obviously needed to go.

R. is still pottering about in the background (having polished off two minneolas) so I suppose I better start ushering him towards bed.