When four makes two

With Penny and Felix in Australia so that the little man can meet the other half of his family, I am still adjusting after a week of school run routine. Who knew there was so much time in the day before nine o'clock?

All these miles (slight exaggeration) clocked up to and from the school gate with a scooter balanced on my lap have made me think. If I got a huge elastic band, the scooter could return home without me having to carry it. Except then I'd need two scooters and two elastic bands.... No, not that. I find myself reflecting on how lucky I am to be in a situation that allows me to re-organise my day (by which I mean do less work) in order to give my time to single-parenting for a couple of weeks.

This is partly because I am a freelance writer/journalist and can therefore make reasonable use of the time between 9 and 3.30 without extra child care. But it is also because I am able to look after myself enough to be able to look after a small human being too. Not everyone with a spinal cord injury is that fortunate. Partly this comes down to the level of injury, but it is also due to the level of support that I have received and still do receive from family and friends. By creating a sense of security, they have enabled me to try (and occasionally fail at) things in order to make the most of what is left to me.

My determination/bloody-mindedness may have contributed to this, but without feeling fully supported, I would not be able to push hard against the things that make my life difficult. If my mobility and confidence were still at the levels reached after I had been out of hospital for a couple of years, I would have been extremely apprehensive about coping for two weeks. Instead I was only mildly apprehensive.

There have been other people who have made the first week relatively easy. Other parents from Rosalie's school have invited her on playdates with their kids and offered to pick her up on the way to school in the morning. All of this has been welcome, if only to keep her distracted from the absence of her of our family unit.

But perhaps more than anyone else, the person who has made the week stress free and fun has been Rosalie herself. Although only six, she understands so much about what I can and can't do, and is patient and cheerful most of the time. I could do well to learn from her example.

Finally, could I point you in the direction of the BT Storytellers for my article on a strange game of tennis, and observations on the subject of teamwork.

That is all.