Thursday 8 September 2011

Stationery p**n...

We all have things we pass on to our children inadvertently. Phobias of spiders and strange men. Eating issues - be they over eating or under eating.  The reliance on men to do certain things that we can actually do ourselves.  Or in my case - an unhealthy attitude towards stationary.

K the Elder started year 3 yesterday, and unbeknown to me, a huge milestone is reached in Year 3 - you are allowed - dum dum dum dummmmmm - your own pencil case.  K decided to drop this bombshell this morning, about 45 minutes before we had to be at school. "Mummy - I'm allowed to have a pencil case now. Please can I take one?".

Now the simple answer to this is yes - go and pack one.  This was DH's response. K disappeared and returned with all her pretty pens (well the ones that had lids),  2 freshly sharpened pencils, a high school musical ruler, MY eraser and 2 pencil cases - both old birthday gifts.  One from her 6th birthday, the other from her 5th.  The one from her 5th seems not to have ever had a felt tip with a lid put in it, ever.  You know what it looked like.  Large patches of various colours of ink. The one from the 6th birthday is even worse - as it was one where you paint your own name on it.  Lets just say her writing of her name and her brushmanship has significantly improved since then. She and I tutted and shook our heads.  The contents were fine, but clearly there was a problem with the container. DH looked confused.

See, I have a thing about stationery.  All stationery.  Shops that sell pens and pencils are my happy place (as well as shops that sell wine).  I walk into them and look around and just sigh and smile. Sometimes I buy things. Some times I don't.  I pick expensive colour-co-ordinated pen and pencil sets up, turn them over and then put them back. I have been known to stroke the really expensive notebooks.  Unfortunately I appear to have gone into this trance in front of my kids.

I remember the exact moment I realised that pencil cases were so much more than just pen holding devices.  They are the first impression you make in a classroom, far more than your school shoes.  I know this because when I was 10 my teacher rearranged the class seating and I was sat next to a girl called Claire, whom I'd never paid any attention to before.  She didn't interest me. That is, until, she took out her pencil tin.  It had a Siamese cat on it, I was interested already.  Then she opened it, and inside there were 4 ball points - 2 blue, one black and one green. A ruler. A writing free rubber. 2 HB pencils - perfectly sharp.  Nothing with scrawling on it. No  chewed ends. Everything had a lid. I was dead impressed.  I paid her more attention immediately. I went home and re-evaluated my pencil box that very day. A former geometry kit tin, chewed and broken pens, a rubber that I'd punched a hole through with the back of my pencil, a 5 inch pencil chewed to within an inch of its life.  Well clearly this didn't make a very good impression. No no no no.  Since then my life has been changed.  Claire was my inspiration.  I still didn't find her very interesting, but she looked organised, and I liked that. I want to look organised too.  It was my OCD in its infancy...

I have managed, without meaning to, to pass this on to my eldest daughter at least.  We cannot walk past a stationery shop without her pulling on my arm to go in.  She always gives people stationery for their birthday gifts.  The more upmarket shops are really her best. The ones with all the items matching. Including note books, boxes and pencil holders.  She even got excited recently about a matching lap top cover and pencil tin she wanted me to get...

So - despite my husbands bemusement, after school, before gymnastics, I shoehorned in a trip to the shops.  I rushed her off to an lovely shop today and we bought this pretty little  number.  I suppose I shouldn't encourage her, but - she was so happy. And so was I...


And here is some of mine.  I literally got heart palpitations when I saw this lot...



2 comments:

  1. I'm with you! I can be given the most extravagant gifts and if I get a new journal with fresh paper, or a writing pad, or a pen I jump up and down, inhale the paper! I LOVE new paper. visiting from www.virtuouswomanexposed.com

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  2. Hi Sarah - Do you get the paperblank notebooks and journals - I just stand and stroke those :)

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