Work

We've being going to work together since Sunnyboy was 5 months old. It was something I wanted to do after reading The Continuum Concept when I was pregnant (and reading it several more times in Sunnyboy's first year). As I've always been an avid charity shopper, the obvious choice was to volunteer in a charity shop and I found a shop that was happy for us both to come and work. I'm so appreciative of all the people we work with who have helped make it such a great experience for both Sunnyboy and myself. After our first day they put in a changing table for us and have continued to make minor adaptions to make it a child-friendly environment. Sunnyboy even has his own cup in the tea-room with his name written on the bottom, just like all the adult staff. Until he was 2 years old he was worn on my back while I worked (apart from during tea-breaks) but since then he has been on the floor playing or helping me while I work. He loves to help other people too and is able to join in with more things as time goes on. Our work colleagues have become good friends to Sunnyboy and I am happy to be part of a community and able to make a contribution to our wider local community. Sunnyboy learns so much from being at work with me 2-3 afternoons a week instead of being separated from the adult world as has become the norm for most children in our culture. It's been beneficial to us both in so many ways and as Sunnyboy's mother I'm so glad that I read The Continuum Concept early on and believed it was possible to find an opportunity to do this. We did also do a newspaper delivery round for most of last year which was great because it was outdoors, paid and we saw so many things of interest on our rounds. We were made redundant from that job before the winter but I'm hoping something similar will come up again in the future.

Here's a quote from Sunnyboy today at work when a co-worker was getting ready to leave:
"Bye L, shop closes in 5 minutes."