Children and white hair….

Baby Pearl is no longer a baby; she has grown into a beautiful six year old little girl, tall and coltish with curly brown hair, big curious eyes and a naughty smile. Today she looks pretty in her new gold bracelets, earrings, necklace, and ring that we bought together for the Eid. Her Eid dress is ready and the new shoes as well but what she loves most are her brand new school items and stationery all emblazoned with her favourite character Marie cat.

The search for a good school has ended, I’ve been comparing schools and establishments, private, public and foreign for the past year and I’ve finally found the most suitable one which Pearl will be joining in October.

Looking at my daughter I sometimes feel the urge to hug her and cry. When you have a child you cannot stop worrying, you want what is best for your child and you are full of fear because at every stage there is something that can go wrong. If you feel rested that you are past the nappy change phase and the kid can walk and talk you have other things to worry about apart from childhood diseases.

In this horrible and messed up world I find myself worrying about pedophiles, about whether the kids at school will be healthy and not pass on hepatitis to my child. I find myself worrying about bullying, about children sexually abusing each other or even what would be my attitude if this happens.

Parenting is very difficult and not having her dad around is even worse. Everyday I worry if I’m doing the right thing, and I wonder how can families that have more than one child cope ? It must be so difficult.. I mean just deciding on the school has taken so much effort. Arabic or English, state or private? Morning or afternoon? School bus or not ? Can I trust the school bus driver? Can I trust the teachers with my child?

I also worry about the rumours regarding organ harvesting as apparently there is a rich trade taking place accross the Algerian border too and from their to Europe. I also worry about the illegals who are allegedly kidnapping and selling the children for Voodoo practices.

The world has changed so much since I was a child; I never thought I would be worrying about such things in an Arab or Muslim country. I guess this is a collateral damage from globalisation?

All this worrying has given me now my first white hairs… sigh children are such a blessing but now I cannot rest until Pearl is grown up and married.

I hope you had a great Ramadan and I wish you Eid Mubarak in a couple of days.