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thank you heidihi and fuschia

keen to dress the kids up but trick or treating will be a bit late for them. i know dulwich park cafe did a halloween party for kids in the past, can't see any sign of it this year tho. anyone know of any kids parties happening in ed or near? many thanksxx

yawn

hello. completely overlooked the fact my childminder is on holiday on monday and need to avoid taking a day off work if i can help it! does anyone have any experience of getting last-minute, one-off childcare? any tips or recommendations? it would be for this monday 8am-6pm. many thanks for any help!

yep, what nylonmeals said - they were really amazing with me, beginning to end, but they are in huge demand and i think you need to be registered v v early to get on their books. good luck with everything tho!

agree with loopylou; the lanes were fantastic for me and both my pregnancies. i think there have been a few problems more recently as they seem oversubscribed - victims of their own success and good press i guess. they are super busy and are careful to prioritise the patients who need them most at any one time - generally the ones who are about to drop vs the ones who are early pregnancy and while early pregnancy, esp the first time round, can be quite scary, you end up appreciating this further down the line!! really can't praise them enough, they are fantastic.

well said jalapeno. one of his more frequent points is also that if you can't stay at home and look after your kids, then a childminder ie one-to-one is a better option than a nursery, so i generally find parents who chose the nanny v nursery option 'like' him a bit more. that said, his comments on why he thinks nanny is better than nursery do resonate and have scared the pants off me given the fact that mine have gone to nursery since they were 10 months...like i needed more guilt!

as one of the parents who was shafted by the whole bojangles debacle, i have to say id rather jack in work than send my kids to a nursery run by that church. they were unpleasnt and unreasonable throughout the whole episode, were completely obstructive and above all showed no consideration for the affected kids. no doubt bojangles were culpable but it was within the church's gift to ease the pain by extending the lease at least while they found new premises instead of implementing a really aggressive policy of standing by the door and telling people the nursery would shut down within two weeks. horrible people.

good thread; havent read the book on principle because his guardian column f**** me off so much. my kids go to nursery 3 days a week ergo i am a sub-standard mother and my kids are destined to grow up with a myriad of insecurities...occasionally he provides some substantive evidence for what he is saying but he always insists on couching it all in 'im not trying to make anyone feel guilty' - in which case, don't write the f***ing article in the first place. We're all just doing our best. i guess im not sure i see the point of the column other than to promote his book.

right, decision made, we're taking our own. thanks everyone.

sounds like a good idea mellors, i had thought of this but was worried about our car seats getting damaged in transit/flung about by cargo handlers? will you be checking them in as they are or with some protection? thanks

thanks savage - i cant believe a company as big as hertz didnt have sufficient supply!

just booking car hire for our french holiday, starting from bordeaux. All the providers I've looked at so far don't guarantee child seat availability tho the implication is that it won't be a problem. Also I'm not sure I know whether I need infant or child seats for my 18 month old and 3 year old - and the 2 companies ive called and asked haven't been able to tell me either. Does anyone have a preferred car hire provider they would recommend?? many thanks

sportacus. every time. xx

always yes to immunisation. and while, yes, it is a parents right to choose to have them for their children or not, by choosing not to have the jabs you are increasing the risk to others' children as the diseases remain more prevalent. not sure about spacing them out - we had all ours at the recommended times and were fine - bit of a cold/temperature after one of them but was fine within 24 hours.

spot on tulip xx

hello, sounds great, we dont get SE22, any chance of getting the route and rough timings put up here please? thank you

yes, womanofdulwich, im fairly sure those two doctors can't get over it either. unbelievable. yemnik - you have to report it, completely understand why you would feel nervous of doing so but childrens services etc must be used to handling this kind of situation and would be able to ensure absolute discretion.

yup, us too xx

we're still waiting too. when i first said we were leaving the nursery they said 'fine, but please be patient, we're asking people to be orderly as we won't be able to deal with all returns at once', so fool that i am i stepped back and held off from demanding a cheque straight away, and now - nothing. can you let me know how you make a claim to the administrators please? has to be worth a shot...xx

i swear by castor oil xx

Many thanks, I also attended last night and this is an excellent summation. I will not be able to attend the meeting this evening unfortunately but any update would be gratefully received.

Hi All As a parent with 2 children at Bojangles I will also be attending the New Life Assembly meeting this evening and the FingerPrints one when scheduled; I'm in complete agreement that neither side have conducted themselves well and I feel as angry and let down as anyone else. However, I think it's v important that both meetings are, above all, constructive, which means trying to ensure the emotive side of this doesn't override our priority - finding out what is going to happen, the options available and forging a better relationship with the parties involved to ensure this kind of communication disaster doesn't happen in the future. I'm not suggesting any of us are about to stand up and start shouting the odds but I recently attended a council-run meeting on a community matter and it was a farce because everyone just stood up and got angry, got personal and got nowhere! At the end of the two meetings we need to be in a position to decide a) if we should 'stick' with Bojangles, b) if the NLA Church have an alternative worth considering, c) if we should start looking for new childcare, and the best chance of extracting the right info to make that decision means keeping ill feelings and high emotions out of it as much as is possible. I know, I know, if you can't get emotional about your kids, what can you get emotional about?? But some emails I have received from other parents suggest that feelings are clearly starting to run very high and we need to keep in mind what is important and what we actually need to get out of these meetings other than just giving the rather heavy handed church approach and the slightly underhanded FingerPrints approach a bl00dy good rollocking!! xx

The church trustee said to me today that they were organising a meeting with parents themselves, for tomorrow evening. I gave them my email on that basis but haven't heard anything so far. If anyone gets details when picking up tonight, please send them to me (PM or public) as my daughter not in nursery today xx

Hi Spoke with the manager at Bojangles today (Cynthia). She said that Winsom and Sonia (the owners) did liquidate Bojangles but 're-launched' under another name, she also said that they were not in any rent arrears and that the church approach to this had been quite personal and unpleasant. I questioned the 're-launch' as even I know that something is clearly amiss there but she couldn't give me further info. I then called the helpline number on the notice outside the nursery, this goes through to one of the premises trustees (the ones who are evicting Bojangles). She said that the owners had been very underhand, liquidating and getting government support for doing so, while then continuing to operate under another name - she said impact on things like insurance is serious. She also said that they don't want to see the kids all suddenly without a nursery where they are v happy and are arranging a meeting tomorrow evening to try and resolve. I asked why their tactics today seemed so hostile but she said when they tried to discuss with owners they 'withdrew from discussions'. Not too sure what to think - certainly seems Bojangles/FingerPrints owners haven't been completely above-board, but hopefully a parents meeting tomorrow will help alot.