Kathleen Palmer

Looking back on 6 Months with Ryan Kathleen Palmer

The grandparents of 5-year-old Ryan were full of excitement and quite sure they could handle the job of caring for him while his mother spent 6 months back-packing across India. They were experienced parents after all - and the village school would handle educational matters. It would surely be a "doddle". Not quite! Day-by-day extracts from the diary they kept take the reader through their experience. Maybe it was their age (by far the oldest parents collecting a child from school): maybe the demands of their jobs as both worked: maybe it was Ryan's own lively and distinctive personality that stretched their parenting skills. But the many funny or "what next" moments saw them through. At least they believe they handled the task with humour and compassion and the closing summary, 22 years on, leaves the reader to be the judge of that.