Putting things into perspective

I am pleased to say that, last night over our evening meal, the talk - from Ben - was all about going to university. It seems as if he's been able to put the eating disorders nurse's "throwaway comment" into perspective. Yes, to him, she's not someone he would want to depend on if his eating disorder made a reappearance (which it hopefully won't). But, with the plan to initially spend half a week in Sheffield and the other half of the week here, we will be able to monitor him. And, for so very very long, he has come to depend on me to be both "clinician" and "carer". In other words, he may never need to see the eating disorders nurse at all, should the worst case scenario happen.


He is happy with all the other support measures that have been set in place to make it simpler for him to ease himself into university life. Also, the faculty admissions tutor suggested that he pop down to Sheffield and sample a lecture or two, as part of the overall plan to make Sheffield University feel familiar.

So at the moment, he seems to be planning to go back to university in September. He's sorted out the student finance; I delegated it all to him this year. In fact I'm delegating everything to him this year. He needs to do it for himself. Mum needs to take a back seat.

Meanwhile he continues to help out with the sixth form history students at school two mornings a week. He's been asked to mentor a few of them in addition to taking lessons and marking work. He has also been invited on a teaching course over the summer about teaching sixth formers. Plus, he's been invited on the school history trip to Berlin the following summer. So it seems as if the school is keen to hang onto him. And Ben is still keen to train as a history teacher once he's done his degree.