I started this story some time ago.
I wanted to take it further and make more happen. I wrote more but lost it all ,and could never bring myself to write it again!
I think I will just post it as it is, and if I think of a further chapter I can always add it.
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club began by accident really. Looking back Bel could hardly remember quite how it took off as it had.
She had noticed her young neighbour Sam going off to school most mornings clutching either a cereal bar or a banana, sometimes munching a chocolate mini roll or bag of crisps!
Sam’s mum Laura was a friend of Bel’s. A good mum, but a busy working one. Since her recent divorce she had juggled her work day to start earlier so she could be home for eleven year old Sam after school. Despite there being perfectly good breakfast options in the kitchen Sam preferred to Grab and Go once his mum set off for work.
Bel felt it wasn’t quite right really. She was always up early, being one of those people who found it impossible to lie in once awake. She was alone at home and there was Sam a nice lad, not bothering with a proper breakfast!
So over coffee one Saturday morning she tactfully asked Laura if she would mind if Sam came to her for breakfast during term time. ‘Mind? Exclaimed Laura ‘I don’t mind at all! I hate that he hangs about in the playground before school and eats rubbish on the way! If you really mean it… .’ She did, Sam was keen, so breakfast at Bel’s became a weekday norm for Sam.
At the end of the second week he tentatively asked if his friend Luke who lived round the corner could come too. ‘Why not?’ thought Bel. Luke’s parents agreed, and insisted on paying Bel if she was feeding their son 5 mornings a week!
On the menu chez Bel was cereal, porridge, toast, eggs, and fruit , along with fruit juice and hot chocolate. Her Friday morning treat for the boys was pancakes with various toppings, which went down very well! After a while Luke’s sister Amelia, most envious of the pancakes, wanted to join them on Fridays. Soon she was there every school morning along with the boys.
‘It’s like a breakfast club Belinda!’ her mum Joan exclaimed one morning when she arrived for their day out just as the children were leaving.
‘I suppose it is!’ Bel laughed, pouring her mum a coffee, wiping the table and loading the dishwasher at the same time.
‘To be honest Mum, I miss the hubbub of a family breakfast now the girls are away at uni and Jim up and off early. He grabs a slice of toast and a flask of coffee to drink in the car on his drive to work. It’s too quiet here during the week!’
As Holly and Gemma were twins, Bel suddenly had an empty house most of the year, unlike most of her friends with more spaced out families. Their kids at least left gradually! It was taking Bel a while to get used to it.
The fact that she had taken early retirement weeks after her daughters started their university life didn’t help. She hadn’t planned it that way. The small family firm she had loved working for was taken over by a big company. A new boss and new pointless rules just hadn’t appealed to Bel at her stage of life, so she and Jim talked it over and she decided this was the right time to leave. She had considered finding an undemanding part time job to take up a few hours of her week, but hadn’t had the impetus to actually look for anything.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes.
Three years later, Bel’s Breakfast Club was up, running and a roaring success!
Housed in a small cafe which had been unused for some time, Bel ran her Club every morning from Monday to Friday, between 7 and 11am.
Since the early days of unofficially providing breakfast for three local children a lot had happened. From the seed sewn by her mum referring to the informal arrangement as a Breakfast Club, a business had grown.
Bel had found suitable, affordable premises by chance, as if it was waiting for her. She completed first aid, child protection and food hygiene courses, and registered with the local council.
It started as a before-school drop in breakfast venue for older children, then younger children and their parents started to come. The original closing time was 9 am, but once she realised there was a market for mums having a coffee and breakfast after dropping off their children at school, Bel stayed open a bit later. Some of these mums had toddlers in tow, so she bought a couple of high chairs, booster seats and a box of toddler toys.
Rose the cafe owner lived upstairs, and was happy to have the premises used again. Since she had reached the stage of finding running her small tea rooms too much and decided to close it , she had been wary about having a tenant on the premises. She has heard stories of bad ones, and ones who refused to leave. She knew Bel’s family, which is how Bel found the premises, so felt secure with this tenancy. ‘I like having you around dear’ Rose confided to Bel. She often came down for breakfast once the pre school rush was over, and enjoyed her cafe being full of life again, and the company it provided.
She charged a very reasonable rent and gave Bel permission to decorate as she wished.
Bright walls, with one blackboard wall and one Art Wall to display the young diners work made a cheerful room.
It was colourful, happy and slightly chaotic. A far cry from the chintzy tearoom which has previously occupied these walls. Bel was a bit apprehensive of Rose’s reaction to the change. She needn't have worried . ‘ It’s just right!’ was Rose’s, verdict. ‘The kids don’t want a stuffy old tea room’ . Bel in fact liked tearooms very much and didn't consider them stuffy, but she took Rose’s point!
There was plenty to keep the kids amused. A book and magazine corner with bean bags, and plenty of paper, colouring books, crayons and felt tips . One of the mums brought in some board games her children never played with, and there was soon a whole shelf of games. Most of the older kids were on their phones a lot of the time, but Bel liked to provide more traditional pastimes in the hope of distracting them from their screens!
Bel really loved her work. It seemed the perfect post retirement job for her. She had always been an early bird, so starting work before 7 o clock was no challenge to her. She loved meeting the children, and the adults who came along. Grandmas, dads and childminders found their way to the club, as well as the mums. Bel had no idea it would be so popular! She had become very friendly with some of post 9am mums, and loved having the babies and toddlers around. The work morning passed quickly. Although it was undoubtedly hard work, Bel didn't really feel it was work most days, more of a busy social event!
By midday the dishwasher had been run and everything was cleared away and ship shape ready for the next day, so the rest of her day was her own.
She appreciated having her weekends free too, to spend with Jim, and the girls on the odd weekend either or both of them made it home for a quick visit.
Life was good. Gemma and Holly had settled well into university life and now graduated and were moving on in their careers. After graduating Gemma found her first job twenty miles away, and had lived back at home for a while before finding a flat of her own. It was lovely having her so close, and they saw a lot more of her now. ‘It’s only for your Sunday lunches that I moved closer Mum’ she joked.
Bel and Jim although still at times missing their daughters living with them, enjoyed the second honeymoon feel of their weekends and evenings together.
Bel felt lucky that neither daughter had emigrated to Australia and hoped that they would both live close enough for her to one day see her future grandchildren regularly!
‘Don’t hold your breath on that one Mum! Bel remembered Holly saying when she had once voiced this.
‘Oh I can wait’, Bel thought to herself, as she held smiley, wriggly baby Harry, whilst his Grandma parked the buggy in the corner. ‘I know I will love it when the time is right for my girls, but until then my Breakfast Club Babies will suffice!
THE END
I wanted to take it further and make more happen. I wrote more but lost it all ,and could never bring myself to write it again!
I think I will just post it as it is, and if I think of a further chapter I can always add it.
The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club began by accident really. Looking back Bel could hardly remember quite how it took off as it had.
She had noticed her young neighbour Sam going off to school most mornings clutching either a cereal bar or a banana, sometimes munching a chocolate mini roll or bag of crisps!
Sam’s mum Laura was a friend of Bel’s. A good mum, but a busy working one. Since her recent divorce she had juggled her work day to start earlier so she could be home for eleven year old Sam after school. Despite there being perfectly good breakfast options in the kitchen Sam preferred to Grab and Go once his mum set off for work.
Bel felt it wasn’t quite right really. She was always up early, being one of those people who found it impossible to lie in once awake. She was alone at home and there was Sam a nice lad, not bothering with a proper breakfast!
So over coffee one Saturday morning she tactfully asked Laura if she would mind if Sam came to her for breakfast during term time. ‘Mind? Exclaimed Laura ‘I don’t mind at all! I hate that he hangs about in the playground before school and eats rubbish on the way! If you really mean it… .’ She did, Sam was keen, so breakfast at Bel’s became a weekday norm for Sam.
At the end of the second week he tentatively asked if his friend Luke who lived round the corner could come too. ‘Why not?’ thought Bel. Luke’s parents agreed, and insisted on paying Bel if she was feeding their son 5 mornings a week!
On the menu chez Bel was cereal, porridge, toast, eggs, and fruit , along with fruit juice and hot chocolate. Her Friday morning treat for the boys was pancakes with various toppings, which went down very well! After a while Luke’s sister Amelia, most envious of the pancakes, wanted to join them on Fridays. Soon she was there every school morning along with the boys.
‘It’s like a breakfast club Belinda!’ her mum Joan exclaimed one morning when she arrived for their day out just as the children were leaving.
‘I suppose it is!’ Bel laughed, pouring her mum a coffee, wiping the table and loading the dishwasher at the same time.
‘To be honest Mum, I miss the hubbub of a family breakfast now the girls are away at uni and Jim up and off early. He grabs a slice of toast and a flask of coffee to drink in the car on his drive to work. It’s too quiet here during the week!’
As Holly and Gemma were twins, Bel suddenly had an empty house most of the year, unlike most of her friends with more spaced out families. Their kids at least left gradually! It was taking Bel a while to get used to it.
The fact that she had taken early retirement weeks after her daughters started their university life didn’t help. She hadn’t planned it that way. The small family firm she had loved working for was taken over by a big company. A new boss and new pointless rules just hadn’t appealed to Bel at her stage of life, so she and Jim talked it over and she decided this was the right time to leave. She had considered finding an undemanding part time job to take up a few hours of her week, but hadn’t had the impetus to actually look for anything.
It’s funny how things work out sometimes.
Three years later, Bel’s Breakfast Club was up, running and a roaring success!
Housed in a small cafe which had been unused for some time, Bel ran her Club every morning from Monday to Friday, between 7 and 11am.
Since the early days of unofficially providing breakfast for three local children a lot had happened. From the seed sewn by her mum referring to the informal arrangement as a Breakfast Club, a business had grown.
Bel had found suitable, affordable premises by chance, as if it was waiting for her. She completed first aid, child protection and food hygiene courses, and registered with the local council.
It started as a before-school drop in breakfast venue for older children, then younger children and their parents started to come. The original closing time was 9 am, but once she realised there was a market for mums having a coffee and breakfast after dropping off their children at school, Bel stayed open a bit later. Some of these mums had toddlers in tow, so she bought a couple of high chairs, booster seats and a box of toddler toys.
Rose the cafe owner lived upstairs, and was happy to have the premises used again. Since she had reached the stage of finding running her small tea rooms too much and decided to close it , she had been wary about having a tenant on the premises. She has heard stories of bad ones, and ones who refused to leave. She knew Bel’s family, which is how Bel found the premises, so felt secure with this tenancy. ‘I like having you around dear’ Rose confided to Bel. She often came down for breakfast once the pre school rush was over, and enjoyed her cafe being full of life again, and the company it provided.
She charged a very reasonable rent and gave Bel permission to decorate as she wished.
Bright walls, with one blackboard wall and one Art Wall to display the young diners work made a cheerful room.
It was colourful, happy and slightly chaotic. A far cry from the chintzy tearoom which has previously occupied these walls. Bel was a bit apprehensive of Rose’s reaction to the change. She needn't have worried . ‘ It’s just right!’ was Rose’s, verdict. ‘The kids don’t want a stuffy old tea room’ . Bel in fact liked tearooms very much and didn't consider them stuffy, but she took Rose’s point!
There was plenty to keep the kids amused. A book and magazine corner with bean bags, and plenty of paper, colouring books, crayons and felt tips . One of the mums brought in some board games her children never played with, and there was soon a whole shelf of games. Most of the older kids were on their phones a lot of the time, but Bel liked to provide more traditional pastimes in the hope of distracting them from their screens!
Bel really loved her work. It seemed the perfect post retirement job for her. She had always been an early bird, so starting work before 7 o clock was no challenge to her. She loved meeting the children, and the adults who came along. Grandmas, dads and childminders found their way to the club, as well as the mums. Bel had no idea it would be so popular! She had become very friendly with some of post 9am mums, and loved having the babies and toddlers around. The work morning passed quickly. Although it was undoubtedly hard work, Bel didn't really feel it was work most days, more of a busy social event!
By midday the dishwasher had been run and everything was cleared away and ship shape ready for the next day, so the rest of her day was her own.
She appreciated having her weekends free too, to spend with Jim, and the girls on the odd weekend either or both of them made it home for a quick visit.
Life was good. Gemma and Holly had settled well into university life and now graduated and were moving on in their careers. After graduating Gemma found her first job twenty miles away, and had lived back at home for a while before finding a flat of her own. It was lovely having her so close, and they saw a lot more of her now. ‘It’s only for your Sunday lunches that I moved closer Mum’ she joked.
Bel and Jim although still at times missing their daughters living with them, enjoyed the second honeymoon feel of their weekends and evenings together.
Bel felt lucky that neither daughter had emigrated to Australia and hoped that they would both live close enough for her to one day see her future grandchildren regularly!
‘Don’t hold your breath on that one Mum! Bel remembered Holly saying when she had once voiced this.
‘Oh I can wait’, Bel thought to herself, as she held smiley, wriggly baby Harry, whilst his Grandma parked the buggy in the corner. ‘I know I will love it when the time is right for my girls, but until then my Breakfast Club Babies will suffice!
THE END
Comment