Am I a bad mother? The school have certainly made me feel like one today.
My son is 16 in October. Last year he and two other friends purchased a second hand lawn mower, they did it up and went round our village (a lovely, safe village) and got themselves a few gardening jobs. This is a village I have lived in for 46 years. A few people even put on our local spotted FB group how lovely it was to see young boys earning some money and working hard.
This year they have saved up and upgraded the lawn mower. They printed off some flyers with their telephone numbers on and are planning to pop them in some doors around the village (nowhere else, just the village where we live) to get some summer money/work.
Today they took some flyers into school to show some mates. A teacher happened to see them, confiscated them and handed them over to the year head. I had a phone call today to advise me that my son and his friends should not be doing this, its a safe guarding issue and I should discourage them from pursuing this interest and I need to have a conversation with him about it tonight.
It was a voicemail message and I haven’t returned his call as I am a bit speechless tbh! I totally appreciate them looking out for the boys but it felt like they were telling me how to parent.
Both my children are fully aware of outside dangers, they would never willing go into a strangers home or take a car journey with someone they don’t know. They are aware of drug dangers etc.
They only want to make a few extra pennies mowing a few lawns and raking some leaves. We are not talking county lines drug trafficking ffs!