Home Truths

WHAT IS JACK THINKING...?

Had a great night on Friday night with my 1000heads' colleagues Lauren and Roxy, meeting up with some other family bloggers at the Miele Gallery in London. Because I work from home most of the time, I haven't spent much time with my fellow workers, so it was lovely to get to know them better.

We had a cookery demo of the Miele Steam Oven from the lovely Silvana Franco before sitting down to a yummy supper. It was fabulous to meet some of my favourite bloggers and get some tips on increasing my followers - Twitter it is then! Felt weird waking up on Saturday morning; my husband was away and the kids were staying with friends. It must be over ten years since I've had the house to myself in the morning; I thought I would relish it, but when I looked into their rooms I felt really sad to see their empty beds (yes, yes, missed Mr G too!)

My daughter is in a frenzy of excitement - she left at 6.30 this morning on her first day as an extra for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We live close to Pinewood, and as she has already decided that acting is her calling, I accepted an invitation to sign her up to a kids' extra agency. I've had to carefully manage her expectations re: becoming Johnny or Pen's NBF. She may not even be in the same scenes, let alone meet them. While she's there she is expected to do homework with a tutor (I wouldn't let her do it otherwise); they are only allowed to work for three hours a day at this age. I was concerned that the school wouldn't be keen, but they are very open to allowing the kids these kinds of experiences. I would love to my son to do it, as I think it would give him a lot more confidence, but he's not interested.

The shoot is taking place at Greenwich Naval College - a two hour drive from Pinewood. The other kids she left with this morning had come from Bournemouth and Swindon, so they've already been on the road since 4am. I'm not sure I would be that dedicated to my child's ambitions - I barely made it out of bed at all. What is your opinion on allowing kids to do this work? I wouldn't be keen on her having a major role, and I definitely will not be taking her to any West End auditions either, but what if it was what she really wanted and she showed real talent? Tricky one.