Picking up from this mornings post. Spiez is just a perfect place. The building at the front of the picture is the hotel we would stay at. The mountain dominating at the back is the Niederhorn. Before our son was born I was practicing for a mountain race. As part of the training I managed to run up this beautiful mountain. I remember lying at the top ignoring the stunning view – just thinking do I run back down or call for a helicopter evacuation…

I recount this story as it came to me again this afternoon. Setting a goal, achieving it then rather than basking in the success you immediately worry about the next step or challenge.

This feels a bit like fighting the system for our son. So many peaks to climb. You climb one but you then immediately have to face a new climb. It can be soul destroying.

We have potentially found a specialist who will assess our son’s dyslexia. But now I need to find the money to pay for it (the leaking washing machine will have to survive another year before it’s replaced). AND I somehow need to find a way of getting the education system to adopt the recommendations of the assessment. I was speaking to another parent who has been trying unsuccessfully for two years to get her school to adopt the same specialists recommendations. Why do we make it so difficult for our kids…

You then see the news which is dominated by talk of Brexit. Our so called Prime Minister is trying to bribe another party with up to a billion pounds of further funding if they will vote for her shambles of a plan. And yet they can’t find the money to adequately fund our schools or mental health support services. She takes great delight in telling the rest of us that money doesn’t grow on a tree. Clearly our Leader values her own career and legacy higher than the kids of our country…… Sadly she is not the only world leader like that.

Then my mind drifts back to that mountain. The Niederhorn. I didn’t ‘get into the chopper’ in an Austrian accent but decided to run down. It was an interesting decent. As some breathless pillock had collapsed at the top into a fresh pile of some unknown and clearly legendary bird droppings. Running while trying to prevent passerby’s getting a good view of the your oddly coloured rear is just embarrassing. Rather than embracing the stain I just tried to run as quickly as possible while keeping my bum always pointing away from people. I can hear my dad saying ‘son as quick as you run you won’t increase the separation between your shorts and that stain’. Maybe that’s a really good analogy for state of our governments overall strategy……

58 thoughts on “Embrace the stain….”

  1. The photo is gorgeous…it brought me back to our family visits to the Luzern area. My husband had a client in Zug and the kids and I would come out for a month at a time. I remember those days fondly, our kids were little 1 and 3 on our first trip, the years sped by and now we have teenagers. I sincerely hope your son gets a proper assessment and the assistance he requires. You are both in my thoughts.

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  2. You, unknowingly, sat down (or collapsed) into a pile not of your own making. Honest mistake.

    Our leaders? They remind me of something my dad said on many occasions…
    “Methinks he (she) done shit and fell back in it.” 🙄😖😠💩

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  3. Living in Oz I must say Brexit seems far far away. I like your analogy of the stain. I don’t know why we make it so hard for our kids or those in need of medical treatment or asylum seekers which is a big issue in Australia

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  4. So appalling that we make it hard for our kids. Do politicians take any part in the raising of their own kids ? A cousin of my in-laws kept being told by her son’s school that he was a slow learner. When he was nine she finally paid big bucks for private specialist’s testing and took a stack of reports and recommendations along to the school principal. Her son’s problems were then recognised and appropriate help given. Of course she will have to start all over again probably when he starts secondary school (- at 13 years here in New Zealand). Politicians are just not interested in children. Our secondary schools seem to have little interest in anything primary schools have to say about the children they are sending along.

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  5. BRILLIANT Gary. But I am so sad that you have to do so much to bring about things for yoyr son. AND endure a leaky washing machine. I wish you well in it all, and would willingly contribute. I don’t know whether setting up a Fund would be something you would want to do, but if so I will give. Happily ❤️

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      1. I really wish you well in what you are doing Gary. And I wish your son well too. You are a great pair together and your love shines through xxx

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      3. Thankyou so much Gary. I am battling today with something not nice. But hey ho. We all do don’t we. Every day. I hope you have a good, WIND FREE day lol. Don’t eat BEANS! Hubby does lol x

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      5. Lol about the baked beenz. Hubby has bean salad ( different kinds of beenz) because he has diabetes and has discovered that they don’t put his blood sugars up. I buy lots of air freshener! 😀

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      7. Oh dear. Oh noooooo. Actually they do affect hubby like that but his blood sugar levels are more impirtant. IBS is a damned nuisance. I have it a bit, too! Bloody bowels lol

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      9. Lol. I think it is here too. Looking forward to going out later. After hubby has had his photograph taken. You know, those ones that make you look like a criminal!

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  7. Rule # 1; ALWAYS take time (a few moments at the very least) to bask in the glory of a ‘success’ – it provides reward/endorphins/stress-relief and the incentive to make the effort the next time, which generally comes around all too soon. 😐

    Rule #2. ALWAYS take a few moments, at least, to check the spot you are about to collapse in so as to avoid later embarrassment and/or serious injury! In Oz we have fire ants who make rather large nests (because they are rather large ants and like to live together in large numbers)… trust me you do NOT want to collapse on one of those!

    Rule # 3. (As ALL politicians are intimately aware of): Always, Always, ALWAYS… Cover Your Arse! 🙂

    If you don’t fit easily into the one-size-fits-all (well most) Government system (any of them) then expect to face a continual up-hill ‘run’ with little chance to rest or bask whenever you have to deal with it. It ain’t nice but it is a fact of life i don’t see changing in our society any time soon.

    I think our best hope is to find ways to go ‘outside’ the system. There are so many inter-connected individuals these days you can find people who may be may in a similar boat and can help in finding solutions – or you could go with Zany’s suggestion? 🙂

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      1. If we’ve learned nothing from the Boy Scouts (apart from what a ‘woggle’ is) it’s the importance of always Being Prepared. Knowing about Rule #4 should enable us to better follow Rule #3. 😉 (Thus preventing Unnecessary embarrassment and some serious laundering of soiled pants and ensuing deluge from the washer, or from having to buy new pairs of shorts/jogger pants, etc.) 🙂

        FYI – Rule #1 doesn’t have to apply to mountain runs only – any minor victory will suffice!

        FYXI – I was seriously impressed you ran that mountain… musta bin back when you were much younger and fitter? (or had longer legs??) 😉

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  8. I think I like that analogy though it did get me wondering at which part the government plays in it. Was it the shit, into which it pulls us, the stain that it leaves us with through its ineptitude or the passers by who just stand there and watch the rest of us stained by shit as we plummet downhill to whatever undealt with disaster awaits? You’re blog is like Thought For The Day without the dog collar and more humour…. thank you for that. And the paternal Bon mots. And the gorgeous picccy…

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      1. I know I’m truly in the madhouse when a German friend told me John Bercow had become a cult figure whose antics are closed followed on the East of the Rhine. I told him we’d do a two for one deal, Bercow and Prince Andrew thrown in as a spare and he’d said they think about it. There’s hope, then…

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  10. Another beautiful photo! I am happy to hear that you found someone to assess your son. I hope the school applies the strategies that will help him, although they sound really difficult. I agree – I hate hearing how much money politicians use to get elected when that money could be used on more important things. Really nauseating.

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    1. It so is. The recommendations are likely to fall outside the established daily school programme so it’s a problem. It feels like you are constantly pulling your hair out. As you so well know. It’s like computing. He should live and excel at the subject. But the government has forced schools to implement a teaching method which is completely alien to dyslexic’s and kids on the spectrum. So he hates it now. Argh….. Hope you are well and the gym is good.

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  13. I can’t say I’ve ever run down a mountain trying to get away from my own stain. 😀 I DO feel like my rear chases me when I run, but that’s a matter of how much matter I’m carrying back there…

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  14. Geez. In the US, public schools are required by law to adhere to special needs recommendations as closely as they are able. We just saw the boys’ pediatrician yesterday, and he strongly recommends getting them diagnosed so the school has to step up. I wish the same could be done for your kid. He deserves it. x

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    1. I hope that goes ok for you. Unfortunately here the schools tend to do the bare minimum required. Approach seems to be set a really low target then anything is a sign of school achieving its goals. The kid seems to be missed out of the process somehow. And thank you xx

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