It's A Puppet!

Up again at 6.15am for work...yawn.

My dilemma today was whether or not I let my eldest son, Lewis, have a little more independence. The deal was that he was to meet a friend from school in the next town, catch a bus to this friend's house, have tea and then phone me to collect him. This all happened perfectly well on the day but I did have a few days of worrying beforehand. It's fine when Lewis was at primary school because I knew all the children in his class and all of the parents. Now he's a high school in the next town, I only know a few of his friends and hardly any of their parents. My main worries about this particular outing were:
1) Whether the friend would turn up.
2) The place Lewis would be visiting as it has a reputation of being a bit "rough".
3) The trip to the park they were planning there. Would the local kids accept the intruder and what about aggressive dogs in the park or on the estate?
It was all fine, of course. I'm sure I drive Lewis mad but I was asking him about everything. He said it was fine where his friend lived but that everyone swore a lot! He said a young lad almost got run over in the middle of the street where he'd been playing football. Lewis said the lad's Dad ran out and shouted at him "What were you thinking? You stupid, effing idiot!" Lewis also said that his friend's Mum had made a chicken meal for tea and Lewis, feeling embarrassed about admitting that he's vegetarian, told her that he was allergic to chicken!! It made me laugh. I've always told my boys that they can eat meat if they want to, but none of them do. I understand the embarrassment thing too....he's at that age when he just wants to fit in.

On a completely different issue: Jed's puppet!