The Riots

This post may not be the most ‘ up beat’ post I have written but I’m angry at what is happening across England with the rioting that has spread. I live Ealing which is one of the areas that had a bunch of ignorant kids burning cars and looting shops under the guise of ‘rioting’ for a protest. Our house is about half a mile from Ealing Broadway and I know some of the shop owners whose shops were looted. I can’t believe that the Police couldn’t contain these kids from wrecking the centre of Ealing, normally on a Friday night there are lots of Police around. Last week I had to stop 2 kids from stealing bikes from outside the main shopping area (I’ve had my type stolen from my bike in the same spot). I’m not surprised that it happened as I do believe that some people do not have the social morals to understand that destroying people’s livelihoods and homes is wrong and cruel. There’s been many questions asked about motives and Hello its Gemma had an interesting post. I believe that’s its not a broken society but a tiny minority who are greedy and don’t want to work to buy the goods that they could loot instead. I can say this as I used to work with long term unemployed for many years running projects to help them get back into work. There were a few (and most long term unemployed do want to work but are caught in the benefits trap) that fundamentally didn’t want to work unless they were paid extremely well. I do believe the Metropolitan Police could have planned Monday night better. I work near Scotland Yard so I frequently see the Riot Police around when they're preparing for protects etc so I want surprised they couldn't get them to Ealing and other parts of London quicker. They'd had riots on Saturday night in Tottenham and then when it spread on Sunday night, so they could have planned better for Monday night.  On a ligher note, my mum who was worried about me on the mean streets on London told me to get a baseball bat to protect myself. Ok, Mum don't think it will fit into my bag and the kids would want to play with it.

My six year old's girlfriend

It's official son 1 has a girlfriend, he had playdate with her on Friday. It all started a few weeks before the end of term, I was sorting out his school book bag and saw a lovely picture which I was just about to put it on the fridge when he told me it was from Rachel at school. I turned it over and it was a love letter (ah so sweet). She's a lovely little blonde thing whose not one of the popular girls in his year so I thought I would boost her future self-esteem as I'm not boosting but my son is gorgeous! That night, we had a chat about Rachel and I suggested that he asked her to be his girlfriend. He thought this was a good idea but then I asked what he was going to do about the 'girl next door' who has always been his 'girlfriend'. He then pondered this in that way that boys / men do. The next evening I asked if he'd spoken to Rachel, he said yes and that she had responded with the message that she knew he would eventually be his girlfriend. I like her confidence, maybe she didn't need my help with her self-esteem. Her mum then organised a playdate for them, don't worry its all v.innocence. Do you think he'll appreciate my suggestions for girlfriends when he's older???