March 2009
Has anyone seen storks flying over Pontesbury in recent months? During the past few weeks the Little Dragon Members list has grown due to the arrival of several new babies – 1 set of twins comprising 1 boy & 1 girl, another boy and 2 girls and at least 2 more expected soon.
It is particularly good news as it is sometimes remarked upon that Pontesbury is an ageing village and it is good to know that the availability of housing is such that younger families can afford to live here.
Regardless of age and experience we all agree that the meeting together for play, chat, story and song plus an ever-boiling kettle usually make for a good morning. When my children were small we lived in an environment where the door of the next house was ever-open to us, as was ours to our neighbour. There was always somewhere to go with a tale of woe or joy and somewhere to pop the children in case of an emergency. Our families weren’t too far away and Mum was always on hand if needed. Many of our young families now don’t have places to pop and many don’t have Mum within reasonable distance.
It is really good that about half of the Carers of our Little Dragons are grandparents and we find that the mix of ages means that everyone has someone of a different generation with whom they can talk and from whom they can learn. Many child rearing ways remain the same across the years but new ideas are always worth more than just a thought – as are some of the good old fashioned ideas. At the time of writing lots of ideas for dealing with itchy chicken pox is one of the main transfer of ideas – gosh, we lead exciting lives!!
Val Butterworth