Gracie E

Today I felt the pull of parental guilt again.

My 11 year old has SEND and as such struggles to form and keep peer relationships. Today he's asked for his friend from school to come over for tea tomorrow night.

Obviously I want to promote this for him so said yes but now I'm sat here wondering if I'll have enough food to go around, whether they will actually like the food as I can't afford processed goodies ATM. I'm wondering how I'll afford the fuel for the extra journey to drop them home.

He has little concept of money right now and thinks it grows on trees as at his dad's house its never an issue so when he asked if I could treat them to a chippy and I said no I saw the disappointment in his face.

The thing is he doesn't ever ask for much, probably because I always have to say no. But now I'm sat here thinking about what other corners I can cut or belts I can tighten to give them a simple treat.

Sometimes poor parenting is just hard.