Impromptu life story work

Jun 22 2012 3:35PM

Unexpected life story work outside Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available)

The weekend shop. Don't cha jus' love it. An unreasonably long time spent being bombarded by subliminal sales pressure, followed by the removal of an unreasonably large amount of money from my wallet. But we need to eat, and (on this occasion) it got Daisy, Rosie and myself out of the house so that Mrs Monty could do some stereotypical housewifely chores.

As we pulled into the delightful tourist hotspot that is our local Sainsbury's car park, Daisy started a conversation that rapidly went beyond what I was expecting. "Dad. Was I always called Daisy?" she said, out of the blue. Thankfully we had kept the Christian name given to her by her birth family, so I was truthfully able to say, "Yes". A moment's thought, then she said, "what about my other name - have I always been called that?". A quick return question confirmed that she wasn't referring to her middle name, but to our family surname. Ah. OK. I can handle this - and outside Sainsbury's, with her younger sister listening? No problem!

Well, I gave it my best shot. We were soon talking about birth mummy's tummy, why birth mum couldn't look after Daisy, and all the other good stuff that we learnt on the adoption preparation course. But it was probably not a textbook response, given that it had started on Daisy's terms - not mine - and that I had no time to get my "strategy" sorted out. Oh dear oh bothery dear me.

I don't think I committed any terrible blunders and Daisy's response at the end of the conversation was to sit looking out of the window for a few minutes, lost in thought, and then (brightly): "Dad! When are we going to get the shopping?!".

Perhaps the moral, for me, is a verse found in the Bible: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you...". I'm not always prepared and I clearly need to be!

Back to Home