It was Master Jacob’s fourteenth birthday yesterday. A few days prior to the great event, he told me that he did not expect any pencils or pencil cases for his birthday. Apparently, they are boring.
How can this be? Every child needs pencils. I simply cannot see the attraction of an Xbox 360 game over a set of HB pencils with gorgeous yellow and black stripes or even some of those glittery ones with the rubbers stuck on the top or, even better, those pencils with the replaceable leads!
I always encourage my boys to buy pencils when we visit tourist attractions so they come away with something really useful. I mean – if there’s a choice of a sparkly pencil for 99p or a fluffy duck wearing a military helmet emblazoned with Desmond’s Wildlife Farm/ Military War Museum/House of Horrors for £12.50 what sane mother wouldn’t encourage their child to buy a really useful gift? Pencils are the choice of every responsible mother.
Am I right, Ladies?
So anyway, as I am also a loving mother I decided to respect Master Jacob’s birthday request. I did not buy him pencils. I got him next best thing.
A pencil sharpener.
It was a big one. I am nothing but generous. In size anyway – there’s some good deals at the 99p Shop.
6 responses
It's obvious to all of us that you're a thoughtful and considerate gift buyer, Jane. How Master Jacob can throw your kindness back in your face, beats me. After all what more could a fourteen year old boy want?
Actually, I can think of several things that a fourteen year old boy would find more interesting, and that's without going into 'X' rated territory!
I enclose a link to the pencil museum at Keswick, should your wayward son wish to reconsider….
http://www.pencilmuseum.co.uk/
I am not ready for back to school shopping.
Just the same though, I think my daughter is the only one that uses a pencil for school work.
Martin, – there is a pencil museum?
How come I never knew about this? It's the perfect place for a family outing!
Ah it's in Keswick, about 5hrs from us. What a pity – still a great online shops with lots of…pencils.
Master Jacob is not in x rated territory yet! I think the girls are interested in him as he looks like Greek God but at the moment he's more interested in his tennis and cricket! No doubt that will all change soon:)
Btw, good to see you:)
G, the best bit about back to school shopping is accidentally buying some extra pencils to slip into my secret pencil drawer:))
You mean they still use pencils and not tablet PCs or, even better, old-fashioned fountain pens, or the newer versions of these! But really I wish pencils were still in use around here. Here kids have to write with pens from around when they are about 10 and in some schools, even earlier.
Sue, they do use Pc's in school but generally speaking only in IT lessons. I would say about 9/10 is the age here too for switching to pens but I suspect that's discretionary.
The boys are always needing pencils for school. Sometimes I think they sharpen them just to alleviate the boredom! These days homework seems to consist of lots of printing off maps and images from the net rather than drawing or tracing them. Pity. I guess I'm old fashioned:)