In my late teens I had a friend who gave me the nickname Sindy. It seems I reminded him of the Sindy doll, precursor pr maybe an English version of Barbie, more sensibly proportioned and more realistic, but still her main activities were keeping house, changing outfits and getting ready for dates with Action Man! Not very feminist! Here’s an article about Sindy and how she lost out to Barbie.
And now everyone is talking about the Barbie movie, which I am afraid is not tempting me at all. No doubt some feminists will tell me I am mistaken in my reluctance to go and see it. Meanwhile more important things are going on in women’s lives. In Afghanistan beauty salons and hairdressers are being forcibly closed. Women’s lives there are becoming more and more restricted. And in Iran the morality police appear to be back with a vengeance.
We have the southern branch of the family visiting for a few days. This morning I watched my nine year old granddaughter condescendingly explaining to her father how to get into the game she was playing on her tablet. Perhaps each generation will have something technological to explain to their parents.
When they arrived yesterday we went along to meet my six year old granddaughter at the end of her last day in school, finishing for the summer holidays. We hadn’t told her that her cousin was visiting so it was a surprise for her. Squeals of delight all round! Unusually there was an ice-cream van in the playground, perhaps because it was the last day of term. We considered buying ice-creams but then realised that the queue was snaking out of the playground and into the carpark. So we quickly abandoned that plan.
The small people got busy with a variety of craft projects while the adults organised the evening meal for everyone. My daughter had collected Granddaughter Number One … and her anxious dog who cries if left alone at home … and Granddaughter Number Two caught a tram from Manchester, where she had been working all day, and then a bus to our house. Not quite the whole family - Grandson Number One was still working from home - and my daughter’s partner had been round for coffee earlier and to say hello to everyone but had gone home to keep Grandson Number One company.
This morning I read this article about how teenagers are afraid pf being creative and I thought about how we had watched the small people busily making up stories to accompany their craft projects. It seems that as children progress through school and the various testing routines, they become fearful of “not getting things right”. Such a shame. Let’s hope we can encourage our small people to keep up their creativity.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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