Ole

I can kind of understand what they are trying to achieve but they way they have written it reads like gobbledygook. If your child gets in they might as well said his name got pulled out of a hat.

We went cold turkey too at about 9 months. I think little Ole started finding his own dummy from about 6-7 months. Over the following month or so he found that if he threw it over the cot we would get up endless times to fetch it back for him. He then realised that if he had 5 dummys in the cot it was 5x the fun.

Need to get my nephew a birthday present. He will be 5 and already has as much Lego as my sister in law will tolerate (lots!). Any ideas? Thanks!

Ours was the same, and still is to a certain extent, and I used to worry too and I am sure I have asked the same question in this forum before. Unless it is developmental milestones that you think he is missing then I think it is normal, some boys are just like that. For us, the so-called terrible two's were a breeze compared to his 'I'll do whatever I want when I want to' three's.

My 4 year old is at the end of week 1 of a 2-week course of amoxicillin and his teeth are becoming stained brown. Does anybody know if this is reversible once he finishes treatment? I am taking him to dentist next week anyway for a check, but I was wondering if there is anything I can do in the meantime or if anybody can tell me once he stops taking the antibiotic his teeth will return to normal? He has very good oral hygiene generally so it must be the antibiotic causing the stains.

Mens, what do you do with school drop off/pick up if you teach at a different school to your children but both need to be in by 9am? My husband says I should be a primary school teacher, he says i'd be good at it(and since I bring it up every so often he probably thinks that I'd like to, which perhaps I do).

srisky, I did not mean to open up a nursing/doctor debate and I don't think I implied that doctors don't make any difference to a patient's comfort but I still think that by virtue of their job description on a day to day basis nurses have a greater impact on a patient's care.

midivydale, you can train to be a specialist cardiac nurse without going through 5 years of med school. I know of somebody who is now a senior cardiac nurse who trained later in life. If I were not so squeamish I would also retrain in medicine but I'd go for nursing rather than doctor as I think you can make more difference to a person's quality of life as a nurse and still specialise in a clinical area.

The life/work balance dilemma thread has given me something to think about. I enjoy my work and luckily it allows me to be flexible (I work in publishing) but I secretly harbour the hope of maybe one day re-training; some days I get fed up of sitting in front of a computer and wished I did something more hands-on, so reading that others are changing career after years in a profession is very inspiring. If you could retrain, what would it be in? (if if you are re-training, what are you re-training in?)

Thanks for all your messages, its definitely given me some ideas. I wish I had transferred him to a school nursery when I was offered a place last year. I think it is probably too late to enrol him in one for the remaining 2 days of the week but I will ask. I did think about it at the time (split his time between private and school nursery) but I thought it would be too confusing for him and too much but I will ask again. Hopefully too once the weather improves we can go out and do fun things outdoors!

pommie, he is born after September so just missed the September cut off for 2013 entry he is not 4.5 yet but I rounded up to it. Nunheadmum, interesting theory re: do we do far too much with them? I think I certainly do, there is no way my mother took me to all the classes/trips/stuff I take mine to. When I am firm 'you must play with yourself for a bit now' he usually behaves really well for the rest of the day so I do wonder if over stimulation is not a good thing. Maybe these next few months I should take it easy and let him to his own devices but difficult to when he follows me around the house like a shadow asking if I am finished yet. Se22mum, my plan is to make sports a big thing so he is tired out. Somebody told me that boys are like puppies, they need to be exercised a lot to keep happy, so that's the approach I try to follow!

You are very sweet edanna; Lochie yes the puzzles are a 'been there, done that' but perhaps would be worth getting him ones for older children even if he can't do them on his own at first. I feel sad because I know once he is at school I know I am going to miss him during the day, but right now I am counting down the days until he starts school!

So glad it is not just me. Yes I can't wait for the warm weather so then I can just dress him up in shorts and t-shirt and spend the day in the paddling pools. I am exhausted when I think of all the stuff we get though in a day. My husband says I encourage it by doing too much stuff so he has just come to expect to be entertained, and sometimes I think he is right because he very rarely plays by himself with his toys unless I specifically ask him to do so (and after 10 minutes moaning).

I am going to have a bit of a moan, I just need somebody to tell me I a not the only one and that it is a phase! My nearly 4.5 year old is driving me nuts. I think he is either massively bored or ready to start school. He goes to the same nurse he has been gong since he was 16 months, he goes 3 days a week and the rest of the week I fill as much as possible with physical activity (chasing balls, swimming, going on the bike, anything to tire him out), we do loads of crafty things at home, we read, we draw, we play, but it just does not seem to be enough. We have days just being at home, we have days out and about, we have playdates, we go on trips, yet the minute I need to do some housework or do chores it is tugging at my sleeve, lolling about, throwing tantrums etc. Everything that is not play ralated is a battle (getting dressed takes ages because he starts playing, mealtimes are a battle because he eats soooooo slowly because he is constantly chattering). The bad weather does not help. I always suspected that these last 6 months before he starts school would be difficult but it is a lot more of a slog than I thought it would be. Anybody else in the same boat?

I had been to 4 different schools by the time I was 12 and I don't think it did me any harm. I think it is more important to have continuity once they start GCSEs etc. I'd go with your gut instinct and maybe also ask your son what he thinks? Also be weary about the feeder schools; when I was looking around schools a lot of them mentioned that their nursery feeds into the school, but that is a load of rubbish because estate schools have to go through the usual admissions systems (unless they have academies status I think) so ultimately entry is based on siblings, distance etc, so although a lot of the nursery or primary school kids will go on to the so-called feeder school it is only because it is their nearest school and not because they are automatically eligible.

My usual tennis partner is unavailable for now so I am considering joining a tennis club so I can carry on playing regularly. The problem is that I don't know anybody who goes to one so I am worried about forking out for membership fees but then not having anybody to play with. I have young child and also work so my time is quite limited and I can't hang out and do the club social thing. I am also quite shy and I can't imagine how i'd set up a game without knowing anybody. I've never belonged to a tennis club so I am not sure what they can offer and the ones I have contacted have been quite vague about finding tennis partners once you become a member. I just want to play locally once a week or every other week. None of my friends are tennis players so I can't ask them to join with me. Any advice or recommendations?

We are thinking of a long weekend skiing. Does anybody have any recommendations? Now my son is 4 I am hoping I can get him started with some group skiing lessons so a kid friendly resort would be very good (don't they look cute whizzing down the slope in a duckling line?!). Somebody once suggested a kid-friendly chain of resorts but I can't remember the name.

Yes Gubodge, I had seen this one. It seems that large leisure centres outside of London are more likely to arrange rollerskating sessions for children, but nothing within zones 1-4ish. We don't have a car anymore so were hopeful of something within easy public transport reach. Oh well, maybe this is one for when we visit relatives outside of SE.

We went to one of these this weekend and my 4 year old loved it. It was in Shropshire and was basically a large sports hall with a portable sound system. Very basic and inexpensive at ?4 per child for 1.5 hours but the kids loved it. Is there anywhere in London doing something similar?

Does anybody know where I can find primary school admissions furthest distances? Southwark council has published the figures for this year's intake, but I want to see what the trends are for my nearest schools so I thought it would be good to have the distances from a few years back too

I read in this forum once, and I thought it was good advice, that pull ups can send the wrong message to kids because they are like pants but it is OK to wee on, yet we are trying to encourage them to not wee in their pants so using pull ups can send conflicting messages and confuse children and prolong the process even if the child is ready to be toilet trained. When I read the post I thought it made a lot of sense. I can't remember who wrote it though and it was a at least 18 months ago.

bumpy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > No tips but thought this was a beautiful way to > express how he was feeling... > > http://www.stevewiens.com/2013/09/03/to-isaac-on-y > our-first-day-of-first-grade/ This is so beautiful.

I'm sorry to say that this happened to me too with my son and he has never had a nap since.....He used to do just that (has a nap at nursery but V difficult to get him to nap at home), until I just gave up trying. If she is happy being in her cot though then that's good? What I did with my son is that I encouraged 'quiet time' - it is OK if he does not want to sleep but he has to be quiet and look at books or play quietly and it worked quite well. She may go back to napping and this might just be a phase, but you should prepare yourself mentally that the afternoon naps will stop. I still think wistfully of when I had a whole hour to myself at home of quiet time....

I use Cetraben for our son, who also had really bad eczema from birth. He is a lot better now, almost clear skin and only need to use hydrocortisone cream when he gets flare ups, which are becoming rarer. With almost 4 years experience I now know that certain foods, drinks and allergens for example grasses and some flowers bring it on, however there are so many variables that it is almost impossible to decipher exactly which one will bring a flare up so I just go along with them as and when they happen. Sometimes even a change in air humidity seems to bring on a flare! I have noticed that on holiday to warm dry climates his skin is much better, and in the winter when his legs and arms are covered up.

Not technically a family discussion, but any suggestions where is the best place for dog-themed fabric (paw prints, bone pictures etc)? Thanks!