HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY to all….whether you’re loved up or not I hope you have a good day. Mine has been unusual so far, having found for the first time in a long time I had another person in bed with me overnight – the fact that it was my daughter, back from uni with pneumonia was neither here nor there. She’s on the mend, thank goodness, but when she comes back home these days, it’s difficult to find a space for her. She came back on Friday, tired and ill and so I cancelled all my plans and spent time with her. We went out locally where she said “OMG mum, this is quite embarrassing, the guys in the bar are going to think I don’t have a life, this is the third time we’ve been out just you and I in the last few weeks…and I was thinking, but what about me? I’m sure they’ll be thinking the same thing!

My son has moved into her room and had his girlfriend there and my other son was also here, so no room at the inn. ALL my children are loved up for Valentine’s Day with partners, so that just leaves me….which meant it was down to my daughter to buy me this lovely bunch of roses. So at least someone cares! This is the first year I haven’t bought Valentine’s chocolates for my children to put under their pillow – but that’s because THEY DON’T NEED ME TO DO THAT ANYMORE – THEY’VE ALL GOT PARTNERS. Not fair.

This year, I feel grown up enough to be very thankful for all that I’ve got and not be upset that I haven’t got a partner to wine and dine me – my children and my friends are quite enough for now, who I did a long walk with this morning and I’m going to see a film later and then out for a comedy night tonight with some girlfriends, no doubt looking like a bunch of old lesbians but WHO CARES! My focus for this year is getting my child through his GCSE’s, work, blog, writing, teaching Pilates and there is simply no other time for anything else, which is a good thing for me right now.

Life is busy, if not a little odd. My firstborn son has now done over a week of “proper” work – his first full time job and our home life is slowly adapting to this. Having a male in the house that needs the bathroom in the morning at the same time I do, has breakfast at the same time as me, irons his shirt and makes his packed lunch is all just a bit odd. I haven’t experienced a male who lives with me who goes out to work every day for over 10 years when I was still living with my husband and it’s very strange. I feel like I’m in a weird Friends scenario gone wrong. Especially as he leaves the house shouting “BYE, LOVE YOU” as he goes. Such is the life of the modern parent, having to house fully grown children because they can’t afford to move out. Oh well. Adaption is the name of the game I guess and it’s all a matter of recalibrating our expectations!