Hamish and the Missing Teddy by Moira Munro

A has had a falling out with her best school friend today, and has been very sad all evening. I find it so hard when there's nothing to be done except give hugs and reassurance that everything will be OK. It's so hard to go to school not knowing if your friend will be talking to you, or if they'll be hand in hand with someone else. Poor A. My three areas of consolation are that it's my day off tomorrow so I'll be taking her to school, that her teacher loves her and is proactive, and that her best school friend is a lovely girl, and I am sure that it will all blow over. A has a back up plan; that she will go round with her favourite dinner lady if the dispute rumbles on.

I decided that comfort reading was called for tonight, so we went for Hamish and the Missing Teddy by Moira Munro, which I bought back when A was a toddler. There's a friendship dispute in the story, and it's all about forgiveness and moving on. I think A found in comforting. C, however, was inconsolable through much of the book, and the happy ending didn't really make up for the emotional trauma which the rest of the plot had put him through. I think perhaps he's a little over-tired at the moment. I'm even more glad, then, that my Dad has agreed tomiss out on his ballroom dancing to come and solve my looming babysitting crisis on Thursday evening, and that C can have a nice relaxing evening at home. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that A, at 8 and I, at 32, can rely on a parent for making us feel better when it's all going a bit pear-shaped. Such reassurance has always made me just that little bit more able to hold my chin up when I go into a tummy-dropping situation, like the school playground when your best friend is cross.

Another teacher told my form the other day that school days are the "best days of your life". One of my very lovely boys was completely traumatised that this might be true, and that at the end of five short years, it would all be down hill. I told him that, in my experience, though school days can be fun; being an adult is a walk in the park compared to school, and I wouldn't go back there for love nor money. At least not to that side of the teacher's desk!