Our fae has more energy than your average 6 year old. I know that all parents say that. But when the teachers at the special school she attends; the disabilities social workers; and parents of other neuro-spicy children all look at her and, on first meeting, say in a slightly high pitched and worried tone “My, isn’t she active?” (See first meet bingo) you know you’re raising a live wire.
Well, not so much a live wire, as the whole nuclear power station that runs on air and sunlight and happens to have all the self-preservation instincts of a perpetually-suicidal lemming when presented with a particularly attractive cliff.
In an effort to find a less destructive outlet for some of this ….exuberance, we signed her up for our local David Lloyds gym. Well, not just her – I joined as well, because the spa is epic. I’m writing this in their version of the Diogenes club (seriously, if they didn’t close, I would move in). The DL kids club is brilliant – at first I think they thought I may have been exaggerating, but they humoured me, and came to meet her before signing us up. They reserved a lovely table in the club room for us to talk, which we never made it to, as our daughter saw the soft play, kicked off her shoes, and was off. So, they moved all their paperwork to the kids’ area, and tried to look comfortable form-filling on the 3/4 size chairs whilst she bounced around us. They tried to say hello as she walked over, only to look a bit disappointed when she gazed through them, grabbed her father’s hand, and marched him off to explore.
I did tell them not to take it personally – she was in a new place, and it WOULD be investigated thoroughly. At which point, they did agree that she would need a care plan, and went off to get one. Well, they would have done – but at that point, she returned, and without a by-your-leave, settled herself on one of their laps so she could colour in the sheet in front of them. Purple – the whole sheet. She coloured it purple, handed it over, and then took my hand to show me there was a contactless charging point for my phone and I was to demonstrate how it worked.
Still, they have been excellent with her, and she loves it. She attends at least two, and, where possible, three sessions a week – she bounces in, has a blast, wants to go to soft play after (has a meltdown that we can’t have dinner there every time) and swims at least twice a week on top of that.
And her membership is only £30 a month! Bargain… just don’t ask what mine is….
Raising the Modern Fae 