Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1294.

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The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike)
Part 1294
by Angharad

Copyright © 2011 Angharad
All Rights Reserved.
  
-Dormouse-001.jpg

The next morning, a Sunday, I woke before everyone else and decided I’d have a workout. I wore some trackie bottoms, a tee shirt and a sweat top over it, then went out to the garage and spent an energetic half an hour kicking myself stupid at Stella’s hanging bag. I hadn’t done any of this for ages and half an hour was as much as I could stand, using muscles I didn’t normally.

Having got myself all hot and bothered, I went up and showered after drinking a glass of water. Tom was just coming back with Kiki as I went up the stairs. Si woke as I came out of the bathroom and asked what I’d been doing. I told him.

“Other women I know do Pilates or aerobics–my wife?–she does kick boxing.”

“You’d prefer I wasn’t able to defend myself?”

“No, but you’re just so different to everyone else.”

“I think I know that, Si, I remember coming round after surgery.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“So how did you mean it?”

“Why can’t you join the WI or some other women’s organisation–though I suppose if you did, they’d be radical feminists within a couple of months.”

“I don’t want to join the WI or other women’s group.”

“No you’d rather be fixing bikes or riding them...”

“Or keeping house; or making meals; taking the kids to school; or doing the mammal survey.”

“Okay, okay, you’ve made your point.”

“No I haven’t. Yes I’d like to be tinkering with bikes or riding them because I actually enjoy it, but believe it or not, I don’t have time.”

“It was your idea to have all the children.”

“It might have been my idea but you agreed to it and besides I don’t regret a moment of it–the best thing I ever did.”

“No, the best thing you ever did was sorting yourself out.”

“In a selfish sense–yes, I suppose you’re right–but giving our children a home is the best thing I ever did. Making them feel valued and loved. I may not be the best mother in town but I try to make up for my inadequacies.”

“Isn’t that for others to judge–such as the children?”

“I suppose so, as far as I know they’re happy enough aren’t they?”

“As much as they can be, I’m sorry I suggested you were different–I should have said you are different–and I’m really glad you are.”

“No you’re not or you wouldn’t have made the comment.”

“I didn’t think it through, the kids are the most important thing, but if you hadn’t sorted yourself first I think you might have struggled a bit with your role as alpha female and earth mother.”

“Alpha female? I never thought about it in those terms, but I suppose I do tend to lead things a bit amongst the women.”

“Amongst the women–ha–you bully or cajole all of us to do your bidding–and d’you know what?”

“I’ve a feeling you’re going to tell me anyway.”

“I am–because of your leadership, we’re all better than we would be without it. So I’m happy to sign up for another tour cap’n.”

At this point, baby C woke up. “I suspect she needs more than leadership.” I picked her out of her cot, “Come along, darling, let’s get some brekkies while Daddy contemplates alpha females in the shower.

I collected Puddin’ en route and the rest of my feminist corrupted slaves followed us down to the kitchen. Whilst I served breakfast with Danny’s help I did wonder about Simon’s thought processes at times. He knows full well that I’m not really a girly-girl–oh I can do the makeup and frillies as well as the next one and can act the damsel in distress when I need to–that’s just one part of me in the same way as the tomboy cycling fiend is.

None of them define me completely, I am the sum of all of my parts as we all are. One day Simon will understand that we all have complex identities and having a vaginoplasty didn’t meld them all into one.

Mima helped Puddin’ to eat her breakfast, buttering her toast and cutting it into quarters. Trish tried to help baby C eat her cereal, but when the baby got bored and spat a mouthful of porridge over her, she made a tactical withdrawal, controlling her temper very well.

“Stupid ingrate,” she muttered as she walked away, while the rest of us held our breaths in case we burst into laughter and really sent her off on one.

I gave the baby some breast milk and she nodded off while feeding, not an uncommon occurrence. Livvie and Billie cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, and Danny provided me with a fresh cuppa and some toast. Despite being up early, I hadn’t managed to eat breakfast.

Simon went out to wash the cars and Livvie and Mima went to help, Trish watched them from the window. “Don’t you want to go and help?” I asked her.

“Not really, cars don’t turn me on at all,” she turned on her heel and went off to play with her computer. I was left standing speechless.

I got on with doing a roast dinner–a leg of pork, which I treated to produce crackling and popped it in the oven. Trish eventually came back and offered to help with the vegetables.

“I don’t think I like babies very much, Mummy.”

“Why’s that, darling?”

“They’re just stupid, pooing everywhere and spitting out food.”

“That’s a bit of a generalisation, sweetheart, they only poo where you let them, in Catherine’s case, that’s in her nappy.”

“Why can’t they do it down the toilet like everyone else?”

“She will, she’s too young to sit up properly and her body isn’t developed enough for her to control her wee or poo.”

“That’s silly.”

“It might be but that’s how humans are, you were once like her.”

“I wasn’t, was I?”

“All babies are. Because we have such complex brains and relatively feeble bodies compared to the other apes, we need time to grow and especially time for our brains to grow. It takes many years.”

“Well, me an’ Livvie are okay.”

“You may well be, but your body and your brain are still growing and will be for at least another ten years.”

“Is that when I’ll need another operation?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart, that’s for the doctors to decide–anyway, we have an appointment to see Dr Rose sometime soon to check your hormone levels.”

“Does that mean I get hormones?–yay.”

“I don’t know what it means other than we’ll see an expert and he’ll decide what’s needed and what isn’t. Now, what’s the real reason you don’t like babies?”

She looked me in the eye and her bottom lip quivered. “There’s no point is there? I mean, I can’t have any, so why bother?”

At this point she threw herself at me and burst into tears. I hugged her and stroked her neck gently. “Lots of girls can’t have babies for all sorts of reasons. I was one of them, like you, I didn’t think I had a chance of ever being a mother but I think you of all people appreciate that I was very wrong, and now I realise that there are loads of children who need new mothers for whatever reason.”

“I don’t think I can do what you do, Mummy.”

“What is it that I do?”

“Breast feed babies.”

“You won’t know until you try.”

“I’ve tried an’ it didn’t work.” She howled burying her face in my chest.

“Of course it didn’t work, you haven’t got the correct equipment yet–you have to have breasts first and then they can give you certain hormones which help them produce milk.”

“When can I start those, Mummy? Can we speak to Dr Rose about it?”

“You can speak to him about it but he won’t consider it...”

“Because I’m too young, I’m always too young.” She ran off out of the kitchen. I let her go for a moment before my conscience got the better of me and I went to find her and calm her down. She was playing with the baby and talking to her, then suddenly her hand moved and the baby screamed.

“Trish–what are you doing?”

She spun round and red faced she ran off past me, leaving me to deal with the baby who was quite upset. When I examined her she had a nasty red spot which was either a pinch or bite. I felt like crying too, after all that comforting and explaining to her she came in and hurt her baby sister. Now what do I do?

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Comments

Seven or 8 going on 25 and

Seven or 8 going on 25 and in a hurry. Trish is really young to have to confront all that, and of course precocious as well, but doesn't have the wisdom that age brings.

CaroL

CaroL

Hi Carol

Does age bring wisdom then?
Perhaps I'd better go and check that one out. (I think I've gone wrong somewhere.)

Bev.

Growing old disgracefully.

bev_1.jpg

Trish vs Baby Catherine

Has Baby C started teething yet? The way the incident is described suggests that Trish was initially getting on OK with wee yin: "She was playing with the baby and talking to her", but then something evidently happens out of Cathy's eyesight which causes Trish's hand to move and wee yin to scream.

Once Cathy's calmed down the baby (and hopefully calmed down herself), she needs to (gently!) ask Trish what happened - find out what actually happened.

Meanwhile, it might be a good idea for Cathy to ask Trish to research puberty. Trish evidently won't listen to adults telling her that girls don't normally develop breasts until they're somewhere between nine and fourteen, but if she's invited to research what happens during puberty and when, she might come to the conclusion herself that although it's agonising waiting years upon end to receive hormones, she'd probably stand out a bit if she suddenly started developing breasts several years before her peers!

 

Bike Resources

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Good thought

trish seems to do better when investigating something. Almost everyone wants to "grow up" before their time though.

This is not

going to easy for Cathy.... But whoever said bringing up children was..... Given what she saw, Cathy cannot allow Trish to escape without some form of punishment, Quite what form that will take is the difficult bit, Too lenient and Trish will no doubt be tempted to do it again when anger gets the better of her, Go too far the other way and who knows what problems you may be sowing the seeds for in the future, Whatever Cathy decides, This is one problem i am glad i don't have too sort out .....

Cathy's love of Pork Crackling reminds me of the snack you can buy over here, Called Pork Scratchings its the cold version of of the crackling, Totally bad for you , But so very nice....

Kirri

Where are you?

Pork scratchings.....mmmmmm in little packets on a cardboard hanger.....hydrogenated cholesterol crunchy filling death....yay!

Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1294

Trish wants to be like her Mummy, but not willing to let nature take it's course.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

The suggestion...

...of Cathy getting Trish to research puberty sounds like an eminently-sensible one to me.

It's worth considering that when you're young, a year seems such a long time because it's such a significant proportion of your life. For instance, in a five-year-old, a year is 20% of your life, whereas for a 50-year-old, it's only 2%. I guess it's all about perception.

Thanks A+B+I (Roast pork with crackling): it's going to be interesting to see what Trish's version of events with this incident is, so I'll hold off making any judgements until tomorrow's Bikesode. I think Cathy should do the same.

Progressive Sophistication


Bike Resources

Hurting the baby?

First we might try and consider what happened to Trish prior to being adopted by Cathy.
Talking gently to Trish and treading very carefully might help find out
As for sibling abuse, well helloo-ooo, it probably happens in most families to a lesser or greater degree. It certainly happened in mine for at least 2 generations as I found out recently. Several of my nieces and nephews also tell me about their aunty (my sister,) abusing them and subsequent follow-on abuse.

Sins of the fathers eh?

Cathy's a pretty good mum (I suppose as mums go.)but then what do I know?

Good story Angie, this chapter explores the dark side of family life and we do need to understand that 'shit happens'.

Stil lovin' it.

Hugs and kisses.

OXOXOXOX

Beverly.

Growing old disgracefully.

Very Disgracefully

Very disgracefully. Making up for the lost childhood.

bev_1.jpg

Sibling jealousy...

*sighs* Trish is SOOOO ready to grow up some times. And others she shows how much a little girl she is. That bit at the end is something that does need to be dealt with. *sighs*

And, that chip on Cathy's shoulder. I think it's almost as big as the one I carry around.

Thanks,
Anne

Have to remember sometimes that

even though Trish often acts much older, she's still a 6 year old and will sometimes show it. Lack of control over emotions and an occasional temper flare aren't afflictions restricted to children. Having said that, she seems rational enough for Cathy to have another discussion.

Sibling rivelry,

I'm amazed it took that long. Trish is young, I think she needs to be reminded of that fact now and again, without tearing down her ego.

There's a term for what trish did, I forget it.

Now I know my problem, I got old before the wisdom caught up with me. But, I'm a guy.
Trish may become a problem, if she continues to hurt the baby.

Cefin