Doctors, Dentists and Haircuts.

Some of those tasks you take for granted are not easily factored into the life of a Chorister family, not for us anyway. Regular health check-ups and haircuts need to covered off outside of the school week or during holidays and that takes a little organisation and perseverance; During those precious weeks I'd guess that the last thing Tom thinks of is a visit to the Dentist for a check-up.

For obvious reasons the Choristers are registered with a GP local to the Cathedral and the two nurses on duty are extremely competent and there's always a fluorescent orange first aid backpack close to hand. Should, however the boys need to visit a doctor when they're at home, they'll need to register as a visitor, even though they may have been to that Doctor since birth.

Tom still has his local family dentist which he needs to attend during holidays; there's an arrangement for emergencies when boarding although I'm not sure of the detail. One thing that we do need to look out for is that his brushing regime at school is a good one. 

Curiously a good haircut has been the thing to catch us out. Although the boys don't have regimented haircuts that we've seen at one or other Cathedral, the school is quite hot on neat and tidy so whilst day boys can get away with longer hair, that's not an option for the Choristers. I'm not sure that very short suits them either, at the end of the day the Cathedral is quite conservative. One time the school even took Tom and Angus out to a local 'salon' such was the state of their hair. We were billed for the pleasure of course.

So this morning, much against his will (for these were precious hours on Saturday leave), I took him to a local barber for a 'short back and sides, but not too short'. A little chocolate bribery may have been involved but the experience was very good all round (phew!)

From top to bottom, inside and out, he is every inch a Chorister.

Comments

[Judith Petherick]

This is a familiar scenario for me. My son is also a chorister and desperately needs a haircut but always wants to leave it until the last minute of his holidays to get it done. He had better things to do today, the first day of half-term so no doubt well be making a last minute trip to the barber on friday before he goes back to school at teatime!!
Great site by the way. I recognise our family in much of what you say!!