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School Shopping

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School Shopping

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School uniform shopping is the work of the Devil, there is no doubt. The basics like shirts, trousers etc. are fine but when the school insists on having logos on sweatshirts and sportswear, then I lose my patience.

So the main part we did without any problem, 5 white shirts, two pairs of trousers, black shoes, rucksack and games bag from Sports Direct and stationery from the pound shop. But then off to the school outfitters for blazer, sweatshirts and games shirt. The queue was about 50 yards long!

Allowing for social distancing it looked about an hour’s wait. I sent James (name changed) off to the chippy for a portion of chips while we waited. Fortunately I was prepared and had face masks for us both otherwise we couldn’t go in the shop, which happened to someone at the head of the queue. 55 minutes later we were in.

‘What school’ we were asked by a rather surly shop assistant. When I told her she answered ‘we’re out of stock until the day after tomorrow’. Before I had the chance to say anything she was asking the next person ‘what school’. So we trudged back to the car and drove home. We unpacked what we did have and put it in James’ wardrobe. I told him we would get to the shop early, on our next visit, to avoid the queue.

James’ Mum called him that afternoon for a chat. Well in fact it was for a rant. She accused him of not caring for her and only thinking about himself. She had no money and nobody to help her in the house or to run errands while he was having a whale of a time being looked after by ‘him’. She then accused him of being disloyal.

James was not upset, outwardly, but it’s not a nice thing for a 14 year old to hear from his Mum. We sat and had a chat about the conversation and how he felt. He said that he was fed up being at home and he was never treated like his friends were, by their Mums. He felt scared about going home and was dreading being told he had to.

I logged everything down in my Foster diary and emailed the details through to his Social Worker and my Supervising Social Worker.

I received a call from the Social Worker asking to speak to James. She did an excellent job of reassuring him that returning home was not on the agenda at present, given Mums obvious problems and issues.

He seemed happier after that call and I was feeling confident about his Social Worker, she was really on the ball.

James cooked tea that night. Scrambled eggs on toast, not exactly Gordon Ramsey but quick and enjoyable. After we cleared away, we had a couple hours of FIFA on the Playstation before James was off to bed.

So a productive day all in all. I was grateful to the Social Worker for her input and reassurance to James.

A Blogging Foster Carer’s Diary.

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