Dear LPG readers, 

I wonder how many readers will admit to ever having contacted work or school to tell them that they were ill on a day when they weren’t. 

I don’t ever remember getting away with it when I was a child, but the school days that most LPG readers identify with came with a completely different set of rules. I can, however, remember at least two occasions when my daughter asked me to look after my grandson because he was too ill to go to school. If my grandchildren are anything to go by, I think that many more of today’s little ones have only to greet their parents with a furrowed brow and the news that they have a sore head or stomach ache to get the occasional day off, especially if there is a grandma who does not live too far away and who will step in and look after them for the day at short notice. 

The surprising thing is the speed with which the symptoms miraculously leave the child once Mum and Dad have gone to work, but I have to say that, once the little ones go to school, I think that we hands-on grandparents secretly enjoy having reason to do a little more impromptu babysitting. 

When I was Mum, I was more inclined to take mine to school and ask the teachers to call if things got worse so that they could be collected early if necessary, but “if necessary” rarely occurred. 

Then there was work, and I do have to admit to having had the odd day off without notice. At one point, I was one of two receptionists in a small office, and we would plan the odd day off so that they didn’t clash and our work would not suffer. It gave us the opportunity to get a few extra things done, such as cleaning the house windows or waiting in for a delivery. 

Now that I am retired, I find that I am one of a group of people who don’t need a reason not to bother to go to any of the places that are part of our weekly routine. As we get older, we people usually have more legitimate aches and pains early in the mornings that leave us feeling unready to work through the demanding routine that will end with us being on time. The irony is that, somehow, there is still that compulsion to make an excuse even though there is really no need. 

On the Saturday after having missed a week, have you ever met one of the organisers of a club or adult social group that you usually attend? I now help to organise a small social club for older people that I once was just a member of, and I occasionally come across one of the people who did not attend the previous weekend. Their first words to me are so often, “Hello, I am so sorry that I did not come last week,” followed by some reason or other. 

The thing is that most of the places that we oldies go to on a weekly basis are places that we have chosen and where we think that our presence really will not be noticed on the days that we don’t bother to go but, in some ways, we members are more noticed than ever. 

It is often the case that you get up in the morning and, even though you know that when you get there you will have a good time, you just can’t be bothered to get all dressed up and make the journey involved, especially if some part of your older body is a little achier that day, it is cold or wet outside, or there is a good television programme on. 

The other thing is that missing one week can so easily lead to another, and then you are not attending more often than you do as the weeks go by. The point is that you are likely to be missed a lot more than you know. 

All those classes and clubs that are put on for older people depend on the number of people who attend, and this is especially true if they are funded by grants. In order to get funding to continue their work, the organisers will nearly always need to prove how many people are being impacted by their services, and the number of people who attend is one of the best ways they are able to show their effectiveness. 

So, while there is no legal obligation for us older people to be there every week (we are not going to cause parents to be prosecuted because we have missed too many days), or financial obligation (if we are off too often from work, we know we are likely not to get paid), there are very real reasons why we oldies need to make the effort to get to those clubs and classes that we chose to get involved with. 

QV, Forest Hill