My daughter’s private school only gives away a very few places to families on low incomes. My daughter was lucky enough to be given a place when she started year one. Even with the greatly reduced fees, I was still pushing uphill to come up with the money and her uniform costs.
When she was diagnosed with dyslexia half way through the year I was told the only way she could stay on was if I paid for private tutoring. I had no spare cash and worried myself sick how I was going to keep her in her wonderful school.
Then one afternoon at my daughter’s mid-term concert, I started chatting to a lovely fellow. I found out Roger was the year 3 teacher and he also tutored quite a few children after school. It sounded great until I heard how much he charged. I could never come up with that sort of money.
Meanwhile, a couple of the other mothers I didn’t like had noticed me talking to Roger. When I went to collect my daughter that afternoon, they had a word to me, warning me off him. They told me his wife had passed away from cancer six months ago and that I wasn’t to put my claws into him. I was terribly upset they thought just because I was a struggling single mum that I would chase after any man going.
I must admit though, later on that evening when I was reading yet another note from the school telling me I had to get tuition for my daughter, an idea came to me.
I got the phone book out and looked up Roger’s address. Once I found it, I dropped my daughter over to my mum’s for dinner that night, dressed myself up and went for a visit. Shaking with nerves, I knocked on Roger’s front door and asked if I could have a chat.
He looked very surprised when I put my suggestion to him. I told him that I understood he was still mourning his wife, but I also knew how lonely he must be too. I explained how desperate I was to get my daughter some tutoring so she could stay in her wonderful school.
Although he had reservations at first, eventually Roger came around to my suggestion. He agreed that he would tutor my daughter three nights a week after school. In return, I slept with him two nights a week when my daughter visited my mum for dinner.
I was in agony for the first few weeks I did it. I knew it was no different to prostitution, but the weird thing is, Roger and I quickly became wonderful friends. He never made me feel cheap or desperate and I think we both helped ease each other’s loneliness without the expectation of a relationship or the guilt that he was betraying his wife’s memory.
Two years later, and my daughter has just started year four. Roger has taught her amazing ways of dealing with her dyslexia and she is now doing really well at school. Roger and I ended our agreement early last year when he started having feelings for the new pre-primary teacher at the school. We parted as wonderful friends and I was even invited to his Christmas wedding.
I’ll never tell my daughter what I did to keep her at her school as I don’t think she would understand my desperation. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I made a wonderful friend and I’ve given my little girl the best start I can in the only way I could think of.
*All names in this story have been changed.
Picture: Getty Images. Posed by models.*
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