This parenting gig is hard!!!!!

There are many things that I find hard about being a Single Parent. Making decisions all on my own is tough. The toughest decision for me so far was which School to send Chick too but I struggle with some of the smaller stuff as well. I’m very lucky that I have good friends and family to discuss my thoughts with but ultimately all the decisions lay in my hands....oh gosh the responsibility!!!!! Nobody tells you about the stuff like this before you become a Parent....that you will spend endless hours agonising over things that your kids are trying to deal with and trying to make good decisions on their behalf. I’m sure all Parents have issues dealing with this stuff but when Chick comes home from school upset I have no-one to balance my outrage or calm me down or make me see reason!!!

Back when Chick was in Reception she had a huge birthday party that she invited the whole class to so that no-one was left out. Later that year a girl in her class had a party and Chick was the only girl that was left out. I really struggled with my anger and trying to explain to Chick that sometimes life in unfair without completely losing the plot. I talked it through with her and finally she agreed that although she was very unhappy about it the world would not end. By the end of that day Chick was fine about it all but not me. See my dislike for the girl and her Mother has just grown and grown. This year the girls are in the same class again and although not particularly friendly are on ok terms. In two weeks Chick will be turning Seven and again having a party. So we spent the whole weekend writing invites and printing directions for the party. I was adamant that the girl who left Chick out would not be invited to the party so that (I) we could get our own back......grown up I know!!!

However, once all the invites were done and we’d invited almost everyone in the class I relented. You see rightly or wrongly I would hate another child to feel the way that Chick did when she was left out of the party. I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing but me being petty and childish isn’t going to help Chick get along or set her any kind of example at all. When she gave out the invites in the playground this morning the other Mum barely acknowleged it....now I don’t condone violence but I surely would like to slap her just a little bit. I also asked the Teacher to keep an eye out to make sure that we hadn’t missed or upset anyone by omission. It was hardly much effort but will hopefully stop another child being left out.

Reading this post back to myself I understand that some of you may dismiss this as my being a ridiculous overprotective Mother and maybe I am. I know that life doesn’t finish if you are left off of the party list and that life isn’t always fair but I’d like to be able to protect Chick from it for a couple more years at least. So what do you think? Am I doing the right thing or being an overprotective Mother????