Pickle

Having just Googled this (being nosey, I'll be honest), I am 99% sure I have this, and have probably made it a whole lot worse by doing regular, quite intense, ab exercises of the wrong type! I'd say my gap is 3cm. I had noticed my tummy wasn't the same as it was, but didn't realise this was what it could be. I will have a look at different exercises to do, and change my workouts. Any suggestions?

Is it really that much of a problem? I've been using the parks daily for 6.5 years and never felt that my kids are in danger.

Do you have time during the day to cook? I make just one meal a day, which we all eat, and try to steer clear of "kid" food so that they learn to eat a good range of food (my kids are 6, 5, and 20 months). When I plan my meals I make sure they're things I can get prepared in advance, so that they either just need reheated, or quickly cooked, at dinner time. The Hairy Bikers cookbooks are brilliant, we ate meals from one of them every night last week - meatballs, fish in Parma ham with roasted veg, cottage pie, egg bacon & asparagus tart, chicken korma. All very easy to prepare, healthy, and a hit with the kids.

Yes, the training pool is less than 1 metre deep (I think). My daughter started lessons at 3 and could touch the floor, just. And yes, we go to lessons on a Sunday, I believe they operate 7 days a week.

We go to The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre for lessons, it's great and generally I think you can sign up at any time if there's space.

Thanks all :) No, I don't make adult garments (apart from the occasional hat) - I find people are put off by the cost of larger items (nice yarn isn't cheap, and I don't knit in acrylic), and they take me too much time. I haven't even made myself anything!

Thank you for your recommendations! I have a Facebook business page where you can check out my work, just search Handcrafted by Pippa My order book is pretty full at the moment (waiting time approx 4 weeks), so do get in touch if you want something in time for the cold weather. P x

Just to update, I put a call in to the NSPCC last week and gave the information I have. It was well received, despite the vagueness of what I could tell them (pretty much all I know is a door number, I've never seen the family, just heard them). Thanks to everyone for your support on this, both here and by private message, it has been really useful.

Yep, just watched it now, he lives very near us!

Well well well, it's worth watching just to learn a little bit about your neighbours. Colin from SE London (the one singing to a framed picture of his cat) lives just along the road from us.

Supermarket own brand - save the money, it's really not necessary to buy the branded ones! I only use a disposable at night, we use cloth nappies during the day, but have found the Tesco ones absolutely fine.

Hi Laura, This kind of thing is already well established in the area, Crafty Cooks run classes, and I think I've seen others advertised too.

Just be wary - if you look at this persons posting history, all they have ever contributed to the forum is recommendations for "their" cleaner.

We have a Samsung one too, but decided to get one without the ice dispenser, as to me the extra freezer space is more important. It's brushed stainless steel though, so not very exciting. It has been great, loads of space.

Jonbateson, we were in the same position - cloth nappies until daytime potty training, then ended up using pull-ups for night for another 4 years! Infuriating. I never found a night cloth one I was happy with.

My view would be to leave her in a pull-up for night at the moment. If you are relying on waking her at the right times to take her to the toilet, to me it sounds like she is not ready. My son was 2.5 when he daytime trained, but 6 when he stopped needing nighttime pull-ups, in stark contrast to my 2nd child who was dry day and night at 2. Don't worry about what other kids are doing, it's not until a hormonal change takes place that they will be dry at night. With our son, we had him in pants while he had his story etc, then into a pull-up right before bed. He was encouraged to go to the toilet right before bed, and knew that as soon as he woke in the morning he should change back into pants. He was old enough to know that if he was awake and needed a wee he was to go to the toilet (which he did). Just after his 6th birthday he said he wanted to wear pants to bed, and we haven't looked back, no accidents, no need to lift him. Good luck x

Still not watching either, but prison officer was good (don't see a future though? At the end of the day, 36, a bit butch, a bit overweight doesn't equal pop success), and I have a girl crush on Nicole.

Very much enjoying the return of Sharon. But no, not watching it either.

I've found it more emotional watching them move from reception to year 1. In reception they're still just little kids, doing little kid stuff - most of the day is pretty much "free range", they get messy, play with their friends and have a lovely time. I got a bit of a shock when my eldest moved to year 1 last September, and suddenly had a proper homework book, and spoke about sitting doing numeracy, literacy etc. My 2nd is moving to year 1 next week and I can't imagine her sitting and concentrating for 5 minutes on that sort of thing!

Thank you Stacker285, that advice is much appreciated.

Thanks SusyP, I think I will next week. I think if I occasionally heard some soothing noises in response to the cries I wouldn't be concerned, as I know how draining it can be dealing with a baby. But all I hear is negative responses, and the baby becoming more upset.

Tricky one. There is a young baby that lives near us. I've never seen him, or his parents, but due to the nature of London living I hear them... a lot. The baby cries a lot, which is normal. What's not normal is the reaction I hear to the baby, mainly by a male, who tends to shout "all right, all right", "shut up", and varying other things. The baby gets more and more upset, his response louder and louder. Today it's been really bad, to the extent I'm hearing the baby cry a really horrible cry, past the point of upset. I've got 3 kids, I've never heard any of them make this kind of cry. I'm on the verge of ringing child protection services, as I feel very uneasy about it. This has been going on for about the last 8 weeks, the baby sounds like its under 6 months old. What would you do?

Vertbaudet have some cool boys things, I stumbled across the website earlier this year and now buy most of my kids clothes from there. You tend to get bombarded with email offers, which is a nuisance, but there are some good deals to be had.

Agree with everything already said. I would add, don't sign up to lots of after school activities in the first term, and if you do choose to do structured after school things try to limit it to one or two a week. My kids do swimming lessons on a Sunday as they would be too exhausted to concentrate properly after school, but after school one does ballet and one has a music lesson. The rest of the week we come home, they have a snack, then just get on with being kids. A bit of tv, time on the trampoline etc. I cook a proper meal in the evenings, as find they don't eat a huge amount at lunch time, my son in particular seems to choose the carbohydrate (rice, pasta) plus cucumber every day! It's an exciting time, and the developmental leaps in the first year at school are amazing. They do start to grow up pretty quick once in the school system though.

(Embarrassed) I can't find any of my pieces of paper that tell me what day the kids go back next week, and the website seems to still be showing last years dates. Tuesday or Wednesday? Help!