DS2 has done something which could have got him into big trouble at school and I am unsure of what to do about it.

[MehgaLegs]

DS2 is 7 in a couple of weeks. He's in Yr2. Last year we were given an old desk by some friends. In the desk was a small stationary set which contained a mini craft knife with a very sharp snap off blade. I put the whole set away in a high cupboard in the study and thought no more about it until yesterday.

As we were leaving school a mum whom I am good mates with approached me. She was taking DS2's best mate (B) home (not her son she does a school run with his mum)She waved a blue plastic thing at me and asked if I knew that my DS2 had given it to B to borrow - it was the little craft knife! I was really embaressed and really shocked. I thanked her and assured her DS2 was not meant to have it and I'd be having words etc.. She is very easy going and didn't make a big deal.

DS2 was v. embaressed, I didn't persue it in the playground and said we'd talk about it in the car. he just kept saying "What? What?" And rolled his eyes.

He knows he he has done a bad thing. I told him that if an adult is found carrying a knife they would be in serious trouble. I also told him that if the teachers or head had seen it at school he would have been in serious trouble.

What would you do? He is a complicated soul. I can't tell if he has realised the gravity of what he did. I am tempted to phone the head and ask her to have a word with him although this would mortify him and that makes me feel bad.

Agree about the dysfunctiona office thing. And the stupidity thing. I often feel a little queasy about spending too much time here.

Horribly easy to, though. Work makes me very anxious and since I have to work with IE open it is all too easy to get trapped in the mumsnet.

I feel very anxious when working too, and even more so when not (as now). So I have childcare which I need to keep for when next job comes along, but no work. V guilt-inducing.. and actually self-esteem-sapping.

(sorry for hijack mehga)

Yeah - you two - get a room

lol mehgalegs!

If threadie and I were to get a room, it would be a rather dusty study with several pairs of lost spectacles scattered over teetering piles of books and papers..

My mother took my older brother and I to see a gurkha display when we were 4 and 5 respectively. It featured some highly stylised ceremonial play fighting with kukhri (?sp), their knifes. (Gurkha's allegedly cut themselves when they unsheath their knives as tradition demands that blood must be spilled).

I think you can see where this is going. It had all gone a bit quiet when we got back. Mum was dealing with my younger brother who would have been about 2. Came back and found DB and I in the kitchen with the carving knife ad the bread knife, generally whirling them around our and each other's heads and lunge-ing at each other with them.

Sorry to hear that Bat. I know how you feel.

And I'm sorry too for hijack mehga. Don't want to offend you (-- not with your family's reputation for knife crime ).

snort at Anchovy

rather than motel room I mean.

Gosh bat, how can you see my desk from there? And can you say exactly where the lost spectacles are?

A weight has been lifted, I feel better.

and [awe] anchovy.

no threadie, can't see, I've lost my spectacles.

LOL - my mum says that she just stood there absolutely frozen not knowing what to do momentarily as she was scared of "distracting us".

Funnily enough, it was, ooh 39 years ago, and I can still remember the telling off we got!

A confession. About 12 years ago (DS was 4 or 5 at the time) I had a problem with mice in my old banger of a car. The only way to keep the mice under control in winter was to set traps each night and leave them in the car (KitKat was my bait). One morning rushing to school DS slipped an unsprung trap into his school bag and took it into school for show and tell. I got a good telling off from the teacher.

and double !!
mice in car, huh? Not had that one.. yet.

I'm one of four girls and we used to play really dangerous games. God, it was fun. I remember once being trussed up in a picnic blanket and tied up with scarves and despatched head first down the stairs by my two big sisters. No matter how near death, we never snitched.

LOL, Swedes. I have a brother a year older than me and one a year and a bit younger. We used to do some quite, erm, adventurous things as well.

On the plus side, I am quite physically robust from my early years training. When someone is annoying me in meetings I sometimes look at them and think "You know, if push came to shove, I could probably beat you up"

Don't let's forget that 30 years ago a knife was a standard part of the dress of the normal well brought up little boy. I was a tomboy so I wore one in my belt too. Part of the scouts uniform, as well, wasn't it?

They were supposedly there for whittling, though my parents must have known that the chances of my ever turning out any object of art were slim in the extreme.

Wanting a knife doesn't automatically equate with criminal tendencies.

He also knows that DH has a knife which he uses for work (tree surgeon). Dh often whittles around with wood and stuff and DS2 probably takes that for granted.

I'm still cross that he took it though, think thta's what miffs me most.

I walk my friend's 6yo boy to school some days. The other day he was fiddling with something and showed it to my daughter - "hey - look what I've got". He had only picked up a six inch rusty nail - and was pretending to stab himself with it.

When I observed that it wasn't a great thing to play with, he shrugged and suggested he might put it in his trouser pocket. NOooooooooooooooo! Horrible mental visions of him tripping over and castrating himself and me having to explain to him mum.

Thankfully he was quite happy to let me hold it to keep it safe and the Deputy Head was even happier to find a safe place for it when we got to school!

All of which is completely beside the point. Yes - I'd probably be more cross about the taking something that he knew was forbidden. And he needs to understand that knives are a complete no-no. But he MIGHT not have really realised that. I used to carry a pen-knife when I was a girl - went with the Girl Guides image and I liked whittling sticks. I guess it's not allowed any more.