Pickle

We travel to NZ frequently with our 3 children - three flights each way totalling 26 hours! Milk - if your son drinks cows milk the airline should be happy to provide it for you. I've never had a problem asking for milk when we fly, and often the children's meals come with a carton or bottle of milk anyway. At 20 months he won't need much more than one or two cups or bottles in a 10 hour period will he? For our most recent trip in April, my youngest was 2 (others 5 and 7, a breeze, they just watched movies the whole time!). I bought a selection of new things for her - a little stamp/ink pad set, mini aqua draw sets, crayons, paper, a few of her favourite books, and an iPad with a variety of her favourite CBeeBees shows downloaded on Iplayer which means they can be watched offline. Generally I have always found that I'm over-prepared in terms of activities, as once on the plane a lot of time is taken up with food, general excitement at being on a plane, and nappy changing/walking around and sleep! In 7.5 years of long haul travel with kids (11 trips to NZ), I've never had a flight where I thought I never wanted to do it again. It's never as bad as you think it will be. Good luck x

A lot of my friends use breakfast and after school clubs for their wrap around childcare. Also have a few who use childminders - many of the lovely childminders I see at playgroups do morning and afternoon school runs. It means they aren't at your house though, so not an option if you're set on having the children taken to your own home.

This would appeal to my 7.5 year old boy.

For teeth that fall out quicker than expected and catch her unawares (or with nothing smaller than ?5), the tooth fairy has been known to raid children's money boxes and recycle a coin given previously. While she feels a slight amount of guilt for adopting this slightly unsavoury approach, she has also saved a considerable amount of money by doing so... (Might not get away with it now that son is using his tooth fairy money to buy World Cup stickers for his album)

?1 in our house - with two children loosing teeth at a rate of one a week at the moment that's all she can afford!

My advice would be don't go overboard. Adults attending will not (should not) expect more than a handful of crisps/nuts and something to drink, maybe a piece of cake. No matter how hard you try, the little ones will prefer crisps, biscuits (party rings are a good birthday option), and mini sausages to lovingly cut vegetable sticks :) If you go for sandwiches, make them tiny and basic (cheese or ham). Have fun. My middle daughter is 6 tomorrow and asked to invite two friends over after school for pizza and a DVD. I'm happy to accommodate such a simple request!

Are risk of being shot down, the *whispers* Gina Ford books have some useful pointers on getting into a good sleep pattern while dealing with a toddler too. If you ignore the other stuff, her actual routines are useful, even just as a guide. I loosely followed the advice in her books for all 3 children, and have 3 excellent sleepers. From what I gather, it's basically the same as what you get if you pay a sleep consultant in terms of the loose structure, so might be worth a look before forking out ???. P x

It as a good game to watch, played in my home town, so I even managed to see a few familiar faces in the crowd. Good to see Ben Smith playing so well.

Similar here. Teenage neighbour ?5 per hour, but for local nights out only once the children are settled for the night. We use a fabulous local nanny for late nights, or very occasional whole days out (we are going to the cricket tomorrow and she's looking after our 3 for the whole day). We pay her ?10 an hour. She is able to put the kids to bed, give them dinner etc.

That's definitely not acceptable, they are basic things that should be done without having to be told. I've sent you my cleaners number, along with everyone else who has messaged me. I will now wait until I speak to her next week to see whether she still has any more space before passing it on to anyone else.

I think you're right to have high expectations, and it is very difficult to find a good cleaner. However, I think that for a cleaner to do a really good job in the time you specify, the house needs to be tidy, so they can get on with cleaning and not have to spend time moving things to be able to do their job. Alternatively, pay for more time so that they can do both. My cleaner is excellent, she has very high standards. She does 3.5 hours in my 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom house which includes changing the bed linen in the master bedroom and ironing 5 shirts for my husband. Two of our bedrooms are in the loft, and not really used, so just get a quick dust and vacuum every week. I keep the house very neat and tidy, and do bits and pieces of "maintenance" cleaning over the course of the week. The night before the cleaners come I have a de clutter - all unnecessary stuff on the kitchen work surfaces gets dealt with (a great way to stay on top of household admin), shoes/clothes/toys tidied away. I leave out the fresh bed linen and the shirts. My theory is that I am capable of tidying, and I know that it's much easier to clean a tidy house. If you would like to contact my cleaner, let me know, she mentioned to me on Wednesday that she has a limited amount of space every week. She works with another person, so they do the hours in half the time, which I find really useful.

Our garden is narrow, so we have a 6ft one... 7.5, 6 and 2 yr olds seem to manage ok (and it's big enough for me to have a sneaky bounce when I'm sure the neighbours aren't watching!)

When I had my second, number 1 was 16 months old. He needed much more attention, baby would get fed/changed/winded downstairs and then taken up to her room for a daytime nap and put down, no shush patting, just popped her in her cot and she was fine. Does your baby need the extended settling?

Here's another gem from a person causing me much rage today "I do fully understand your position and I can see and appreciate the logic of it, but it?s just that I do not agree with you ." If this person had the foresight to provide some kind of counter argument I wouldn't be raging so much, but to just say "I do not agree with you". Dear oh dear.

Couldn't possibly comment Otta :)

This sentence "Whilst I can respect your position I don?t think we are going to persuade each other and so I am afraid we will have to leave it there"

I've always shut the door completely! My 2.5 year old is still in a cot and can't get out, but older kids have been used to having the door shut from day 1 and I have never had trouble with them getting out of bed (unless for necessary things).

I have really battled with mine since I had my 3rd baby (she's 2.5 now). I went to the GP and was prescribed Duac gel, which although pretty harsh, has done a good job of clearing up the worst of it. I now just use it when I need it, which tends to be in line with my cycle. Having tried all sorts of cleansers, I'm now using good old Clean and Clear, and a very basic Nivea moisturiser, and my skin is better than it's been for years.

We spent a lovely week in New Romney last summer. We rented a house, but there were lots of options down that way, caravans, beach houses etc. Loads to do, nice beaches, and only an hour or so to drive to from here.

I think it depends on the child as to whether they feel alienated or not. It doesn't seem to bother our son too much, and we focus on the things he's good at. He will speak about boys playing rough games of football, and follow it up with "I bet they're not good at playing the recorder like I am"! We've come to accept that our boy is never going to be a boisterous boy - he likes nothing better than to sit drawing, writing, and playing with Lego. Middle daughter is the adventurous outdoors one, and little one (another delayed walker) is somewhere between the others and a little keener than her brother was to try climbing. Definitely speak to the teacher, and focus on the positives.

Hi Lochie, My son was very similar, scared and unwilling to try most of the physical activities other kids his age were having fun with, while his sister (17 months younger) was always the one at the top of the highest thing she could find. He was a delayed walker (21 months) and has taken much longer to gain physical confidence than others. We used to laugh at the playground, as he would stand at the bottom of climbing frames basically carrying out a health and safety assessment as the other kids played. He has, in his own time, improved a lot since starting school. He is in year 2 now, and happily launches himself down the big slides at soft play, and is just starting to love bouncy castles (at the point where they don't feature at parties anymore as the others have outgrown them!). We gently encourage him, but never push him as that tends to make him switch off to an idea even more. He still has his moments... Last summer he bravely climbed up the tower at the adventure playground above Sainsburys, only to completely freeze once up there. I had to abandon my then 15 month old at the bottom and climb up to coax him down. He's terrified of bees and wasps (is currently inside while his sisters are in the garden, as he saw a bee). He won't join in with games of football or ride a bike, but loves school sports day and the school fun run, so we are considering looking into athletics as a physical, but not scary, option for him. Our school did home visits before the children started in reception, and I let the teachers know that he needed gentle encouragement for physical tasks. They were great with him, so hopefully your sons school will do something similar.

Use your little finger to immediately break her latch, and firmly say no. They usually learn and stop doing it.

http://www.bunkbedsworld.co.uk/p/Barcelona_Off_White_Bunk_Bed.htm#rev We are considering this (cheap) set for our kids - anyone got experience of using bunkbedsworld? I am immediately wary due to cheesy web address, but can't find negative reviews online.

I Facetimed once when I was in NZ, and it caused my youngest (then 15/16 months) to throw a massive tantrum anytime someone touched the iPad :) We generally don't do it, but do keep in touch with whatever adult has the children (apart from our most recent trip, this was my husband). That said, when we were away as a couple last month we tried ringing my mother in law, but she isn't up with the "mobile phones are designed to be switched on all the time" school of thought, and left it off all weekend. They didn't answer the landline either!

Completely appreciate that politeness is a good thing, that's why I recognise my rage as being irrational :) I have long since given up on anyone going straight down Underhill Rd through the roundabout giving way to me. I still find oranges cause me rage, but I probably mentioned that back on page 2.