Level Two. Keep up.
Level Two – Keep up.
By Michelle Lloyd.
New One was astounded at how his mum could keep up with so many different things in a day. Off she went to the plant and pot where she would be found most days and he knew that there she would keep up with every need and demand of the people with who she worked, then at home he would notice her keeping up with everything that his dad and he would ask about or for and then to top it off she would keep up with the messages her friends would send her for this or that…New One’s mum seemed to him to be the number one keeper upper ever.
New One watched as his mum would keep up with chores, needs and then a last minute ask from his school to bring in some extra plants for a display they would be having. It was frantic, frenetic and fast! New One found himself rushing just to keep up with his keep up mum and before he knew it he was lagging in what seemed to him to be a keep up with it keep up competition.
At school New One tried to put his well learnt keep up practice into what he did and so he put his hand up with everyone else, tried to do more, say more and be in more games than he ever had before. Surely if his mum did it then it must be something he should aim to accomplish too and New One fought to keep up with everyone at everything.
The fast, full on day started to soon catch up with New One and before he had noticed it the last class was being taught. Having looked at a slightly astonished Little Herbert and at R V he could see that on his friends’ faces were looks of confusion at what he had been up to all day. Hardly had he time that day to talk to them or to, when he thought about it, think about anything he had accomplished or learnt. In fact when he thought about it New One felt quite tired by the day’s exertions and he did not know how his mum kept up with all the keeping up that she did.
At the end of the day New One waited while his teacher had a quick word with his mum and then it was on their way home that he found out what the teacher parent talk had been about. How had his day been his mother wanted to know and New One did not like to admit that try as he might he could not keep up with everything as his mother did. After a few non-committal responses New One’s mum came up with another question for him and that was why his teacher had thought that he had not been himself, answering questions without really not seeming to know the answers and generally racing about at play without looking like he was joining in with any particular game. New One tried to explain that he had been trying to do everything with everyone just as his mum did and it came down to him not being able to do it. New One’s mum thought about what he had said for quite a while and then she reassured him that whilst it may look as if she was keeping up with everything, she had learnt some time ago, that she should only do what she knew she could do and never take on so much that she could not cope. New One accepted that he had taken on too much that day and he promised his mum that while keeping up looked like you should be able to take on everything asked of you, in reality all you should do was what you could do well.