From the Mouths of Kids...

Well Readers,

After starting the year in sort of good form by getting a number of posts out, interspersed by a week or two of nothing, I've since been in hibernation by the looks of things! No point with excuses, there are none worth trying!!

It's not like I haven't wanted to post, as I love doing it when I get the urge. It's just that although I've often thought "Yeah, I could write about that", I just haven't gotten around to it!!

So today while I'm having to cool my jets at a shopping centre in Bendigo for a few hours while I wait for a car to get detailed for selling, what better opportunity to get started on a new post. Speaking of shopping centres, this is definitely not the place where I'd choose to be hanging out. I have no choice as it's at the opposite end of town to where I live, so I just have to suck it up. Judging by the odd glances I'm getting at the coffee shop I'm sitting at, not many people must come and sit at these tables and do things on their laptops!

Before I get on to the focus of this post, a fair bit has happened since my last rambling from April.

On the first day of the school term I was driving to school and was just feeling like absolute crap  (Sorry for the use of that term, but it is the most accurate). I was honestly thinking of turning around, going home and quitting on the spot. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Once I got to school I started to pick up a bit (must have been the banter with my colleague, more about that later), but still felt like a 2 out of 10.

During the day my colleague came in to see me about something when the kids were out for recess, and he saw that I was doing a COVID test. He asked if I thought I was positive, which I wasn't. As I still haven't had COVID, I was wondering if this was what was wrong with me, as I didn't know what it would feel like. So I soldiered through the rest of the day and hit the sack as soon as I got home.

The next day was the same, I just couldn't figure out why on earth I was just feeling so rotten. More COVID tests, still all clear. Home that night and straight to bed, too sick to even cook. It was nearly as bad as a "Man Cold" !!!

Well, around 10.00 that night Armageddon hit with all its fury!!

I woke with massive stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea and anything else that wanted to make me feel awful. This continued until around 10.00 the next morning, by which time I had called in sick.

By the time I found myself crawling across the floor with my head in a bucket and in so much pain I thought to myself "Something isn't quite right here", so I dragged myself up to the emergency department at the local hospital.

To cut a long story short, I spent two days in The Base Hospital before being transferred on the third day to St John of God where I had my appendix removed. That explained the belly ache!! Then it was two weeks off work to start the term, hardly the start I was looking for. 

Following this little episode I had a few nervous weeks of waiting as the surgeon said that he was "very concerned" about some tissue samples that he was sending away for analysis. Thankfully after three weeks they came back all clear, but after recent history in my family I was starting to get a tad worried. All good now!

It's a bit of a running joke in my family, and just about everywhere else now that I can't stay out of hospital, or not have something going wrong with my body. Admittedly, many of them are my own fault, but the appendix??? I did nothing to cause that one!!! 

Now to the point of this post.

Last Friday I was out on the oval with my class and three other Gr 5 classes having some sport and a general tear about the place on the last day of school before our two week holiday break.

We ran the kids through some races in preparation for our upcoming athletic sports, and after all the kids were finished, a few started chanting "Teacher's Race, Teacher's Race" until it reached such a crescendo that we couldn't dodge it. Except me.

My other 3 colleagues dutifully lined up, but I didn't, as I can't even hobble let alone run after my ankle surgery from 18 months ago. Sadly, running is something I can't do again.

Anyway, as more and more kids were calling out my name to join in, my refusals were falling upon deaf ears as most of them were probably unaware of my situation. What made it worse was the fact that I take so many of the sporting activities in our weekly session, even though I can only join in very meekly. They probably assumed that I could run.

What this made me realise is that the kids will often come out with things that are so mindless or so insignificant, yet they can still have a massive impact. I know that I can't run, or join in like I used to, but just hearing them calling on me to join the race only emphasised this even more. They weren't doing it to embarrass me or force me into it, they genuinely wanted all 4 of their teachers to have a fun race together. The other three did, and boy did I wish that I could be a part of it. Well, not after the two male teachers acted like total flogs in the race!!! Well won Amy👌

Just some innocent voices that really made me realise my own mortality!!!!!

And while on the subject of my bung leg, a couple of kids in one of the younger grades came up to me on the yard last week and innocently asked ,"Mr K, how come you walk funny?"

They weren't being rude, it was just the natural curiosity coming from some kids who were genuinely interested as to why I often "walk funny".

I definitely have good and bad days with my leg, some days I'm able to walk fairly normally while at other times I limp considerably, especially around hills and steps, or after I have been sitting down. This is where they have obviously paid attention to my "funny walk". What they don't notice however is that every step feels like an electric shock is going through my foot due to the nerve damage. I still don't know if it will stay this way or gradually fade away, I'll find out more in a few weeks. In the meantime I'll just take it one step at a time (pun intended!!)

Just another example of a purely polite and inquisitive question from some kids who had noticed something and took it upon themselves to find out the answer. 

Was I offended? Of course not. I was pleased that hat they felt hat they could ask me.

At least hey weren't as "rude" as my class last year who would jokingly hide or put out of reach my crutches, walking stick or mobility frame!!

Enough of me banging on about my limbs.

While I was thinking about this post, it made me realise how deliberate so many of my kids are in greeting me each morning, or saying goodbye at the end of the day.

I'm not talking about a flippant "Hi Mr K" or ""Bye Mr K", but genuine and sincere interactions where they actually came up to me and say it. If the morning has been a rush (or when I may have come to school thinking I have COVID!!) just to experience an interaction as simple as this is enough to make one alter their mindset and focus on the effort that child has made, rather than on what piddly other thing I may have been fussing about. Like school work!! 

There are 3 or 4 in particular who hang about at the end of the day while most rush out just to say "Thanks Mr K" and it always warms my heart that they take the time to do this. If the day has been crappy, it's just the best tonic to finish up on and make me look forward to the next day. To go and tell another teacher about this when it happens also magnifies the impact that it has and it's something that I just appreciate so much. I don't ask them to do it, or encourage them to do it, it just happens naturally from them.

It does however make me realise that I need to reciprocate it and make them feel as special as it makes me feel when they do it to me.

Another recent comment I heard from a child came from our nearly 4 year old Grandson, Henry. Totally innocent, but clearly stemming from the fact that he is starting to notice more things about me.

I did mention a similar time where this happened around a year ago when he was looking at some photos, but when this happened last week I could tell that he has definitely noticed some things and maybe has been thinking about them.

We were having one of our regular Facetime calls and discussing my upcoming visit to them later this week. Out of the blue he came out with "Where's Gran?", clearly in reference to Jen. Before I could answer, his dad quickly stepped in by saying "Remember Henry, we have talked about this many times", and he was happy with that and started to talk about other things. Talk about saving me from an awkward response, thanks Sam!!

But it did reinforce that out of the mouths of kids can come the most innocent things in their own mind, that can be mind blowing for us as adults as we try to explain it back to them. As he gets older I need to realise that he will question many things in his own innocent way and that I will have to be prepared for the unexpected!!

And that's okay !!!

My procrastinating has continued and it's two days since I started this post, so while I'm waiting to board a flight I thought I'd finish it. And how perfect is the timing!

As I sit here having a coffee and a toastie (I tried the Maccas toastie and it was magnificent!!) I can't help but hear the excited chatter around me.

There is a family sitting behind me with 3 young kids, around the ages from 5 -12 and from what I can gather this is their first trip away to the Gold Coast in Queensland. I'm trying not to eavesdrop, but the level of excitement is too hard to ignore.

Overseas readers, you'll need to know that this is a very popular holiday spot for thousands of people from my state of Victoria who flock there at this time of the year to escape the Winter. It is also the venue of so many theme parks.

After one asks, "Will we go to Sea World?", another asks "What about Movie World?" and can we go to the beach EVERY day?". As mum and dad say yes to each question and show websites to the kids, they just keep getting even more excited.

This really took me back to the times when Jen and I took our 3 boys on numerous trips to the Gold Coast back in the day and experienced exactly what this family was going through right now. Amazing how so many memories were triggered just by hearing some excited chatter from a few kids. If they are on the same flight as me and sitting near me, I may as well just suck it up, as it was maybe 20 years ago that our family was subjecting other travellers to the same thing!!

Another flippant comment from a group of kids at school last week also resonated with me.

I have a colleague in my Unit who is often teasing me good naturedly, and he gets it back just as quickly from me. Or even more!! It is all just good banter that we don't wish to offend the other with, or take offence.

Often we say things in front of the kids that are totally acceptable and they get a giggle from it.

Anyway, last week after one such round of comments, a group of kids were laughing about it with me when this teacher left the room. Then all of a sudden they started with "We know you tease each other a lot, but we know that you are really good friends"

How perceptive were they? And they nailed it!

This person cops it mercilessly from me every day, but whenever I need to confide or seek support, he's my go to as I have the utmost respect for him. And the kids obviously notice this.

So what this has taught me is that the kids are taking notice of us even when we think they aren't. So I'd better be extremely careful!!!

On another topic not related to this, we received some great news recently in regards to my older brother who was diagnosed with leukaemia late last year. A few months ago I was selected as the donor for his bone marrow transplant, and the latest news from two weeks ago is that it has been very successful and that he is well on the road to recovery.

It has been a very emotional time for me as we weren't able to achieve the same result for Jen, but I am so happy that he is on the mend. Well done Tony 🙏

Well I better get this posted before it takes me another two days to get my act together.

As adults, let's just be aware of what kids do come out with from time to time, as it could be something that just makes us laugh, or could also be something that really makes us change our lives a little.

Even with my poor hearing I'll be staying vigilant from now on!!

Until my next post,

Cheers

😀