Pickle

Having been through having them removed at 25, I have vowed that if my kids show signs of tonsil problems I'll have them taken out as early as possible. It wasn't until after they were gone that I realised just how sick, pretty much constantly, they had been making me. In the (eek) 15 years since, I've had a much stronger immune system, and have never felt as sick as I did in my early 20s. It was hard being the only patient over the age of 8 in the day surgery unit - I was surrounded by bouncy kids who were fine post surgery, whereas I felt rotten. Not helped by the nurses offering ice lollies, when actually I wanted cold hard drugs (and my Mum) :)

I suffered terribly from my early 20s until I had my tonsils removed at 25. In my experience once it's taken hold it is very difficult to fend off - I used to recognise the early signals and go straight to the GP for antibiotics. I had years of misery, so I feel for her. For me, if untreated, it took about 24 hours before I was struck with fever and rendered useless for days. Healthy diet etc definitely helps (and something I was probably lacking from at the time), but with GCSE's looming I think you should take her to the doctor. Good luck x

My three are now 7.5, 6 and 2.5, still no regrets. In the last few months the bond between my two girls (#2 and #3) has really strengthened, as the youngest is now at an age that she can play games that are led by her sister. Very sweet to watch. I don't have any close friends locally who had babies at the same time I had #3, but it's never really bothered me to be honest. We go to playgroups, and as I'm "older" I find myself bonding with childminders rather than the younger Mums with first children the age of my third. Life still revolves around school, and I find my little one is much more excited at the prospect of spending time with a 6 year old than another 2 year old :)

I have a 6 and 7 year old too, and we still stick to 7pm, especially on week nights. I can't imagine life without my evenings! They're up at 7am on school days, and 7:30ish weekends. Sometimes they are still awake at 8pm (they share a room), but we have said it's fine to read quietly, which is what my parents used to do with me. My daughter isn't too bad if she misses an hour or so of sleep, but my son really needs it, he's terrible if he's tired.

A few years ago we had a new front door and patio doors fitted, I had 2 kids at home at the time (2 and 3 years old). Two of the tradesmen from the company had a full on physical and verbal fight in our front garden in full view of me and the kids. Thankfully it was over pretty quickly, but the kids still talk about it. Horrible. That, combined with totally shoddy workmanship, means I'm quick to advise against using that company when it crops up on the forum.

Both are good schools, my kids are at Goodrich and very happy. They are expecting to be graded outstanding in the upcoming OFSTED assessment, but I agree with Hellosailor that this should be a guide and not used for a final decision. Schools are constantly changing. The best way to get a true feel for schools is to attend school fetes, fun runs, boot sales etc.

The cable car across the Thames is fun, good for not so nice weather as you can explore the O2 at the other side.

It really depends on the child. Personally I always recommend recorder as a starter instrument, as it's easy to get a decent sound from and is technically straight forward, meaning the child can concentrate on learning to read music without having to struggle with the instrument itself. From recorder it's a relatively easy transition to other wind instruments. Violin is another good option, although a lot trickier in terms of hand position and fingerings. Guitar or ukulele are also possibilities, although to my mind a very different type of musical path through reading chords. Depends what the child wants to do really! In terms of age, I started recorder at 6 or 7, self taught, followed by lessons for a couple of years, and moved to flute at 10. My 7 year old son started private recorder lessons at 5. My daughter (nearly 6) wants to play ukulele, which we will look into later this year. The main thing at such a young age is that it's the child wanting to do it, rather than pushing them. Hope that helps x

The service at Plough DIY. Service with a smile no matter how small the purchase, genuinely nice staff. The newsagent/post office on Forest Hill Road. I use it often, and love that I can chat to the post office staff about their families, they ask after mine, and the guys that run the shop are great. Makes me feel part of the community every time I go in.

Receiving a letter thanking me for "taking the time to respond to the HS2 blah blah blah..." I didn't take the time to do anything of the sort, but obviously a person I know who is heavily involved in the anti-HS2 campaign has felt it's fine to use my name and address without asking. Grrrr. In fact, I think my rage is rational?

Catching up on this a bit late - firstly congratulations on the birth of your little one! It took a good few weeks for me to notice a difference after my son's posterior tie was snipped (picked up late, he was around 7/8 weeks old), but with perseverance we carried on feeding for ages. Definitely not an immediate miracle cure, but worth it in the long run. Please shout if you need help with anything while you get feeding back on track, I'm just round the corner x

First impression is that it's very old fashioned in terms of design and navigation, which, to be honest, puts me off delving any further than the front page. Hard to navigate on a tablet, which is another big negative for me.

It's a drop off cr?che/nursery facility, open 4 mornings a week from 9:45 till 12:15pm. ?10 a session, run by the most lovely group of ladies. All three of my kids have been, up to the age of starting school nursery.

We are currently visiting family in NZ - my little girl keeps using the toy phone to call Tessa :)

There's a girl at the school my Mum works at (in NZ) called Tinkerbell. She's nearly 6 feet tall, and plays women's rugby.

I have an arm pouch which I use if I need to take a whole bunch of keys with me. Generally I take them off the key ring to reduce bulk. Jingling drives me mad, is I stick a tissue in with them. If I'm running with my phone (which I also have an arm band for), I put two keys down behind the phone, and the others in my pocket (running tights, in a zipped pocket).

Saharan rain dust. After months of procrastination I finally washed the car on Saturday. Typical.

You will never see it beside messages that you post, but others will.

Yes, this is very common, and all three of my babies went through this phase from about 8/9 months for about 6 months. It can be a nuisance, but also means your baby loves and trusts you over all others, so you've done a great job :)

I met with the deputy head today to discuss our circumstances. Seems that "unauthorised", but with the schools blessing, is to be the final result for us. If I had taken the children with me when my brother died last year, in the middle of term due to where Easter fell, meaning nearly two weeks off school, that would have been exceptional circumstances. Because we took time to consider the impact on the kids schooling, and decided it would be too disruptive, therefore waiting until the anniversary of the death where it works out we can tack onto the Easter break and miss just 3 days of school, it is unauthorised. This system is absolutely crazy. By doing the right thing, you are penalised. Granted, it's just on paper, but for me the principle of it is totally screwed up. I have been told many times today that the dFe's definition of "exceptional circumstances" is very tight. Funny, when I read the legislation I found there is no definition given, leaving it to the discretion of the head teacher. That would be the same head teacher that today, before telling me to see the deputy because "I don't deal with those things, told me that "you need to provide proof" in relation to my 34 year old brother dying. The Daily Mail would have a field day. I'm off to have a glass of wine.

I ran along there earlier today and there was no sign of anything really terrible having happened - nothing mentioned in the news, so hopefully it wasn't as bad as first reported here.

Lots of bad things about Kings? I feel extremely lucky to have had my 3 babies there - I had complicated pregnancies, Kings have the leading consultants and specialists in the country working there. People pay to see the consultants there, and complicated births from private hospitals get sent there. That aside, you should consider which is easiest to get to. I ended up in hospital for a week prior to giving birth with my first, and if I had been at St Thomas's it would have been much harder for friends and my partner to visit. Also, I had lots of pre and post birth appointments to attend, far easier at Kings which is 5 mins away on a bus. It's worth remembering that people are more likely to talk about their "bad" experiences than good ones (applies to everything in life), so for every unhappy customer there are hundreds and hundreds of happy ones.

I had my adenoids removed when I was 4 (and tonsils at 25!). Back then I had to stay in hospital for the night without my parents, and I remember it vividly. Is your little boy aware of the effect they are having on him? If he's often ill from tonsillitis he should understand that getting them taken out will make him much better. I would be quite matter of fact, explain that he will be put to sleep (just gas these days I think - whereas I had a fear of butterflies for years after having a doctor tell me the butterfly was going to land on me... It was hiding the needle, I then thought butterflies could sting!). Reassure him that he won't remember anything about the operation, and buy him something nice to help take his mind off it while he's recovering. You might find that if you start the conversation he then has questions for you. Good luck. My son had an operation when he was 2 and it was far more traumatic for me than him!

If offering items for sale would you need to have your kitchen inspected and rated by the council? You may have already looked into this, but worth considering. There's also a lot of competition locally, I know of at least 3 or 4 other people that advertise on the forum, as well as others that don't. I think it's a good idea though, so long as you really love baking, as your margins will be quite low. The bulk make of a cake of the week is a good idea. Personally I would be unlikely to be a regular customer, but have previously used such services for bespoke cakes and one off orders for weekends when we have visitors. Good luck x

Mellors, we have the same situation, it happened last strike day too. Year 2 boy stays home, year 1 girl still has school. Very tricky!