Ben leaves us

Today Ben is leaving us and going back to work on his dads dairy farm. I am feeling very sad and that somehow I failed him as a mum again. His time with us has been one of ups and downs. The ups was him being baptised and joining the church. Getting to know my son has been a journey in its self one I will treasure.

Ben left school this year and unfortunately he is one of those statistics (fallen through the cracks) with no qualifications. So when he came to live with us getting him a job was going to prove a little difficult. However despite all the odds Ben managed to get a job at McDonald's thanks to Hakopa clan. The job started out alright with regular shifts however as time went by work dwindled off and that concerned me. I found out that he hated working there and some managers treat staff poorly. Ben was struggling with keeping up with tasks. I knew it would be only a matter of time before they would dismiss him. Meanwhile when you don't work and have too much time up your sleeve you tend to find things to occupy your time for Ben he wasn't using his time wisely and manager to get into a little trouble.

We decided to try and look for a new job for him and went around lots of places. We managed to get some application forms to fill out. Then last weekend he went back to his dads to celebrate his grandads 70th and I think he realised that he missed the farm life and so he came back to us and made the decision to move back to the farm.

We shall miss him alot (although I wont miss the big piles of washing he brings to me at the end of the week despite asking him everyday if he had washing).