Morning scuppered

I am so annoyed. My whole morning has been scuppered by a series of unfortunate incidents. Now what you have to understand is that Monday and Thursday mornings are sacred to me. Those are the days when Renée is at school and Edie is at nursery. In other words, those are my only two mornings during the entire week where I'm child free, and as much as I love my children, I relish these times. So imagine my horror when I woke up this morning to discover that not one, but both of my children were ill. All my plans of a quiet morning catch-up with my friend Isabel were thrown into disarray. Although it was just a coffee and a natter we'd had this morning ear-marked for at least a month and I was, how shall I put this?, somewhat reluctant to cancel. So, call me selfish and irresposnsible, but I sent them to school and nursery anyway.

Now before you all take a collective intake of breath, I just need to clarify that when I say they were ill, they weren't that ill (I mean there were no red spots or suspicious welts). I was going to say that there were no limbs hanging off but I hate to tempt fate, so I deleted it. But seriously, anyone with small children can testify that a runny nose and a little cough are commonplace and if something like that was to keep them off school then they'd never attend. And besides, Renée actually told me herself that she wanted to go to school. Obviously I jumped on that, and it did help ease the feelings of guilt when I waved goodbye at the school gates. 'Darling if you are reluctant in any way to go to school then that's one thing, but if you yourself want to go, then how can I deny you?' Between the coughs and the sniffs we parted. As for Edie, well she was a bit teary, but I put it down to her having not been at nursery for over a week because of half term and was sure she'd settle down after I left.

So that was that. Or so I thought. No sooner had I made it over to Isabel's when I received a phone call from nursery. Edie had taken longer than normal to settle down. In fact, her nose was streaming, she had a temperature and well, it was probably a good idea for her to go home. So I climbed back into the car and said my quick goodbyes to Isabel. But what was this at the bottom of her road? A helicopter, a fire engine, a couple of ambulances, half a dozen police cars and almost the entire collection of the Brighton and Hove police force. It soon became clear that poor Edie would have a fairly long wait for her Mummy due to the fact that a slightly unhinged gentleman wielding a machete was threatening to throw himself off the rooftop of a nearby building...and as a consequence all the roads within a half-mile radius were closed. As far as I was concerened, this was pay back time for not putting my children's health at the forefront of my priorities.

In the end, I made it to Edie's nursery within an hour. And guess what? She was fine. Ok, so her nose was slightly runny and her cheeks were a bit pink, but she'd still managed to give the nursery staff the run-around all morning. Now if she had been truly ill, and maybe this is wishful thinking for Edie, but I'm sure she wouldn't have had the energy to be naughty. Possibly. Anyway, I'm back home now. Edie's having a sleep. All I've eaten is a bloomin' grapefruit and I'm half expecting a phone call from Renée's school to tell me that she's ill too. You see when you're a full-time Mother you can never truly relax. And that is the most exhausting part of all.