Ever since Bucket jnr was little he has always had a really, REALLY good gag reflex (this could get yucky so if you want to look away, now is a good time).
We've been caught short a few times in restaurants (funnily enough mainly in France) where he's wanted to try something and then all you can see is all of us diving for the napkins and shoving them in front of him to lessen the damage.
Now, we've brought up our children saying "don't eat with your mouth open" and Bucket jnr does this very well and we didn't foresee a problem but....
A few weeks ago I had a phone call saying that Bucket jnr had been sick at school so I went to pick him up and was mortified for him that it had happened in the lunch hall. But when I questioned him, he wasn't sick or suffering from an illness - he gagged at all his friends showing him their mushed up food in their mouths whilst eating (can't say I blame him).
Well, as all mums know, once a child is sick they have to stay off school 48 hours after the last sign.
So he stayed off school. Perfectly all right. No problems at all.
I had a little chat with him about what to do if this happened again and nothing happened, for about a week.
Well, there I was Christmas food shopping when I get the dreaded call again. I raced home, as safely as I could of course, and picked him up.
Yep, he gagged...AGAIN.
But hope shone through and common sense prevailed - I had a phone call from his teacher later in the day who let me know that as he isn't sick he could go back into school again and we will try and manage this.
YEAH!!! I am soooo glad, I was really dreading all the schooling he would miss until this was sorted out. But it does mean, for the moment at mealtimes, I have to show him my open mouth full of food so he can learn to look away and ignore it.
It does seem a little step backwards in teaching manners but it's a hell of a lot easier than trying to teach all the other kids to close their mouths whilst eating. Sam xx
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