keys of his own

Yesterday I had a new set of house keys cut, two front door keys for youngest son.

It was suggested by the other mum who shares the school run duties with me that maybe our youngest boys need some more freedom and independence. To that end neither of us will be waiting in the car at the school gates tonight.

Their options are, get the bus, which to be fair they have managed before on occasion, to arrange to go and see a friend or to walk.

Oldest son is getting the bus, there’s tennis on TV and he can’t miss it if he wants a career as a sports reporter!

Youngest son has elected to walk and has merrily been plotting his route to include a visit to Sainsbury’s to buy a Lego minifigure.

He probably won’t need his new keys today, oldest son is bound to get home first and should let him in, but he is nearly 13 and the time has come that he should be responsible enough to have his own set.

Another step towards adulthood as I let out the apron strings a notch further.  

Lone parenting is never easy and once more I wonder what Andrew’s attitude would be?  He used to remark to his mother that he didn’t want to see our youngest grow up. He was always worried about what the boys would do when they were older, what careers would be open to them. He had been through an apprenticeship and his path was set, times have changed and life is far more uncertain and changeable. It frightened Andrew that there were no clear cut answers.

I must confess to having my own concerns about youngest son. He is small for his age, half of the year sevens who started secondary school only yesterday are already taller than him. A teacher commented at lunch that his sandwich was bigger than he was!

He is also a very innocent child, nowhere near as worldly wise as most children his age seem to be. He’s lost in a fantasy world of adventure most of the time.

However he has a big personality, he knows his own mind and can have an incredibly sensible head on his shoulders when needed.  I am sure that the more independence I give him the more he will grow and ultimately surprise me in a new found maturity.

There are advantages for me too; I no longer have to make sure I am back for 3pm on a school day.

More possibilities are unlocked from this one set of keys than first meets the eye. And so we all begin the next chapter.