Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

That's hardly sport Cath, although I am sure I only know of a very small percentage of your misdemeanours, (and you the same of mine) - if you are going to dangle the carrot in front of us all, you should not be surprised if several bunnies want to take a bite!!

I'm beginning to regret mentioning it now!

I made the mistake of telling my children that I did something REALLY naughty at school but they would have to wait until they were older before I could tell them about it. Now a few years have passed and I am not sure that I want to tell them, and I am not sure I would tell anyone here on this forum because it was one of the few things I and a few others totally got away with but would have meant instant expulsion if we had been caught or found out. That's why I can't tell my kids until at least they have left school themselves, by which time I doubt they would be interested.

Stupidly I thought it would be a comment that would pass un-noticed. Fool! I wasn't the angelic, goody-two-shoes some people seemed to think, neither was I a rampant rebel. Just wanted a bit of a laugh/excitement sometimes when life felt a bit dull. It was the usual stuff that 16-18 year olds get up to, just in tudor dress!!

I've never said anything about being naughty at school to the children, but during a conversation about drugs, Beth asked us if we'd ever taken them. My husband never has (never felt the need to), but I was a bit stumped for a while as to what to say. I ended up taking the tack that most people who go to university experiment a bit, and I had gone to university and not been happy with some of the decisions I had made. She was quite happy with that. I don't want to lie to her about my life (she knows about the boyfriend who killed himself in very general terms), nor do I want to be too explicit when she's maybe not the right age to deal with certain things, if at all, and I don't want to condone drug-taking, but she will meet these situations and have to deal with them. 'Do as I say, not do as I do' doesn't seem quite right. What do other people do in these situations?

Both my children asked the " sex & drugs & rock'n'roll " questions at various times , and I gave the basic truth, but stressing that following my examples was not necessarily the best route...

( btw, how does one kill oneself in very general terms...? sorry, I will now go and stand in the corner...)

Euterpe13 wrote:Both my children asked the " sex & drugs & rock'n'roll " questions at various times , and I gave the basic truth, but stressing that following my examples was not necessarily the best route...

( btw, how does one kill oneself in very general terms...? sorry, I will now go and stand in the corner...)

.... and you said I was bad !

I also have never taken illegal drugs, alcohol being my drug of choice, so I have no problem with this one. As for the sex thing, safe sex is the way to go, Santa gave my son a condom purse in his stocking when he was 16.

englishangel wrote:I also have never taken illegal drugs, alcohol being my drug of choice, so I have no problem with this one. As for the sex thing, safe sex is the way to go, Santa gave my son a condom purse in his stocking when he was 16.

I'm all in favour of safe sex, as long as someone puts a padded cushion on the safe first !!

J.R. wrote:

englishangel wrote:I also have never taken illegal drugs, alcohol being my drug of choice, so I have no problem with this one. As for the sex thing, safe sex is the way to go, Santa gave my son a condom purse in his stocking when he was 16.

I'm all in favour of safe sex, as long as someone puts a padded cushion on the safe first !!

cj wrote:Stupidly I thought it would be a comment that would pass un-noticed. Fool! I wasn't the angelic, goody-two-shoes some people seemed to think, neither was I a rampant rebel. Just wanted a bit of a laugh/excitement sometimes when life felt a bit dull. It was the usual stuff that 16-18 year olds get up to, just in tudor dress!!

I've never said anything about being naughty at school to the children, but during a conversation about drugs, Beth asked us if we'd ever taken them. My husband never has (never felt the need to), but I was a bit stumped for a while as to what to say. I ended up taking the tack that most people who go to university experiment a bit, and I had gone to university and not been happy with some of the decisions I had made. She was quite happy with that. I don't want to lie to her about my life (she knows about the boyfriend who killed himself in very general terms), nor do I want to be too explicit when she's maybe not the right age to deal with certain things, if at all, and I don't want to condone drug-taking, but she will meet these situations and have to deal with them. 'Do as I say, not do as I do' doesn't seem quite right. What do other people do in these situations?

In the past I've told my girls that I've made mistakes in my life and hopefully learnt from them. I've then told them that I would like them to learn from my mistakes too if possible which is why I sometimes tell them not to do things I did when I was young.

Touchwood they've turned out alright. Two have got degrees and the third is chugging along ok at the moment.

I like your avatar by the way. There is a touch of Davina as you mentioned on another thread and your little girl looks a real sweetie!

Mid A 15 wrote:I like your avatar by the way. There is a touch of Davina as you mentioned on another thread and your little girl looks a real sweetie!

The little one is my 2 year old as a fairy/butterfly/hoodie menace (interesting combination), and the other one is not me, but my (nearly) 12 year old gorgeous step-daughter as the carnival princess in Tavistock last week. This is not the first time that she has been mistaken for Cora's mother - but the previous time it was a nearly blind geriatric, not like you, Mid A 15 ....!! They are both stunners and extremely photogenic. And completely wonderful etc.! The older one has just finished primary school and got straight 5s in her SATs, and was the lead in the end of term play, so we are extremely proud of her. The little one has also had her end of term assessment/report from pre-school - very surreal. Going down the slide constitutes 'spatial awareness and understanding of body size', whilst sitting down to eat lunch is 'following routine and developing a sense of trust'. And I thought she just went to play.

cj wrote:

Mid A 15 wrote:I like your avatar by the way. There is a touch of Davina as you mentioned on another thread and your little girl looks a real sweetie!

The little one is my 2 year old as a fairy/butterfly/hoodie menace (interesting combination), and the other one is not me, but my (nearly) 12 year old gorgeous step-daughter as the carnival princess in Tavistock last week. This is not the first time that she has been mistaken for Cora's mother - but the previous time it was a nearly blind geriatric, not like you, Mid A 15 ....!! They are both stunners and extremely photogenic. And completely wonderful etc.! The older one has just finished primary school and got straight 5s in her SATs, and was the lead in the end of term play, so we are extremely proud of her. The little one has also had her end of term assessment/report from pre-school - very surreal. Going down the slide constitutes 'spatial awareness and understanding of body size', whilst sitting down to eat lunch is 'following routine and developing a sense of trust'. And I thought she just went to play.

No swearing Mid A 15 please leave the Big Brother House

cj wrote:

Mid A 15 wrote:I like your avatar by the way. There is a touch of Davina as you mentioned on another thread and your little girl looks a real sweetie!

The little one is my 2 year old as a fairy/butterfly/hoodie menace (interesting combination), and the other one is not me, but my (nearly) 12 year old gorgeous step-daughter as the carnival princess in Tavistock last week. This is not the first time that she has been mistaken for Cora's mother - but the previous time it was a nearly blind geriatric, not like you, Mid A 15 ....!! They are both stunners and extremely photogenic. And completely wonderful etc.! The older one has just finished primary school and got straight 5s in her SATs, and was the lead in the end of term play, so we are extremely proud of her. The little one has also had her end of term assessment/report from pre-school - very surreal. Going down the slide constitutes 'spatial awareness and understanding of body size', whilst sitting down to eat lunch is 'following routine and developing a sense of trust'. And I thought she just went to play.

Surely going down a slide is playing and eating lunch is essential!

cj wrote:Going down the slide constitutes 'spatial awareness and understanding of body size', whilst sitting down to eat lunch is 'following routine and developing a sense of trust'. And I thought she just went to play.

I have to say Cath that I was a bit confused with the photo, but I was just too polite to ask where the fountain of eternal youth was in Devon (although I think my mother has found something in the water in Brixham since she moved down there!). Although there was a family likeness in the elder person in the Avatar, 'you' did seem younger than when I last saw you when you were about 19.

Oh and sorry for trying to drag some funny anecdotes out of you - I didn't expect the thread to develop like this - I was just assuming a couple of stories about near misses drinking in the lag or smoking behind the theatre, that most of us of our generation experienced.

My son has had a similar set of 'interesting' descriptions of relatively normal play activity in both his pre-school and nursery reports (why a 4 year old needs such determination I am not sure) but as I am at work at the moment I can't lay my hands on them - perhaps I will join in again later and add some to the thread.

cstegerlewis wrote:Oh and sorry for trying to drag some funny anecdotes out of you - I didn't expect the thread to develop like this - I was just assuming a couple of stories about near misses drinking in the lag or smoking behind the theatre, that most of us of our generation experienced.

Diverting tactics - as practised when your child is about to enter a full-blown tantrum.

I do remember meeting Mr Keeley one evening after a leave day when we were staggering back for roll-call. We'd been drinking in the hockey goals (!) and must have stank to high heaven of booze. He asked if we'd been smoking, to which we honestly replied, "No, Sir". He seemed happy enough with that and let us go on to run the gauntlet of Mrs Endacott. The only time I was ever caught smoking was on Sharpenhurst in the wood there. Stupidly someone suggested we stop on the path, and who should appear as we were lighting up but Mr Avenell going for a run. He said nothing as he drew near us, but when he passed by, turned around and suggested we see our housemaster on our return. Cue much cacking of pants on the way back. Mr E fortunately saw the funny side and didn't ban us from going to the UF disco, which would have been the end of the world. I remember being worried that my parents would be told, so I thought I'd get in there first and they could hear it from the horse's mouth. My Dad just laughed and said I was an idiot to get caught. We never smoked behind the music school as we were concerned what Mr Elliott would think if he saw us!! Always walked miles to the edge of Big Side.

cstegerlewis wrote:I have to say Cath that I was a bit confused with the photo, but I was just too polite to ask where the fountain of eternal youth was in Devon (although I think my mother has found something in the water in Brixham since she moved down there!). Although there was a family likeness in the elder person in the Avatar, 'you' did seem younger than when I last saw you when you were about 19.

Am trying to find a photo of me at school to use as my avatar. I just love that photo of the girls.