About an hour ago I got a phone call from L's school.
It was one of the reception staff ringing to say that L had had a slight accident when another pupil had dropped a large flask full of soup on her foot. It was starting to bruise a little but she was able to move it. So could I go and pick her up and bring her home.
Had the soup spilled out of the flask and burnt her? No. Had the flask shattered into pieces and slashed a great hole in her foot? No. It had hit her on the foot (on her shoe at that) and bounced off again. It hadn't severed her leg off.
She is struggling to walk they say. Of course she was struggling to walk. She's an 11 year old girl. Wouldn't most 11 year olds be struggling to walk at school if they thought the alternative was to come home and lie on the sofa and watch tv.
So of I go. Get to school. There's L, sitting at reception looking smug at the though of coming home. Thank you very much I say to the receptionist and trot off out with L (who looked like she was walking pretty normally to me).
Get to the car. About to get in the car when I say - shame you'll be missing your tech lesson this afternoon. You won't get to finish your juggling balls off and bring them home.
All of a sudden there is nothing wrong with her foot and she wants to go back to school. So I take her back in. Tell the receptionist she wants to stay and off she skips into the lunch queue!
The world is going mad. If she was vomiting; if she was bleeding; if she was unconscious on the floor; if her foot was hanging off, quite obviously broken then by all means ring me and I will take her home (maybe to the hospital even) but please don't ring me to say that she has a small bruise on the top of her foot which made her walk a little stiffly!
Elf and Safety no doubt.
