Ole

This morning my 2.5 son took of his trousers and his nappy off, put the nappy in the bin, pulled out his potty, did a wee, and then came to tell me about it (I was making breakfast and did not know what he was up to. He then told us that he wants to go to shop to get pants. Taking the cue from him, today we went to the shop and let him choose some pants, and this afternoon he has had two accidents although the second one he did run to me telling me he had a wee but by the time we got to the bathroom it was too late. So my questions are. Clearly he is ready to be potty trained, but how do people manage: 1. For nursery. Do I put a nappy for nursery or do I keep him in pants and give them lots and lots of spare clothes? 2. Do I wait until he is going to the potty regularly at home before sending him out into the big wide world in only pants? 3. Once he is out and about in pants, how do you do if we are, for example, on the platform waiting for a train and he tells you he needs to go? Any tips appreciated thanks!

theasidonio Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Otta Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Look, basically people are selfish about their > > weddings, and fair enough, it is their big day, > > and I would never suggest they should change > their > > arrangements on my part. That doesn't mean I > won't > > have my opinion. > > > > I missed my friend's wedding last year (I was > > meant to be best man) because they chose to > have > > it in Cyprus, where her mum owns a nice place, > and > > it would cost them a lot less. Of course, that > > means all their guests have to spend a fortune, > > and as a result, they ended up with q lot of > their > > friends missing, especially on his side. > > > > I personally won't attend a wedding where my > kids > > are not welcome, or if I'm expected to abroad, > > without good reason (went to a friend's wedding > in > > Venezuela, because bride was from there and her > > family never would have afforded to come here). > > > > Don't even get me started on non religious > people > > marrying in church! > > > The non-religious people marrying in church really > upsets me too. Have managed to upset my dad and > all of his very-Catholic family by a) not marrying > in church and b) not inviting the family priest to > the reception! As I said you can't please > everyone. I was once invited to a wedding and my > long-term partner was not invited. I politely > declined the invite but was fuming about it for a > time but got over it really quickly. Out of curiosity - why did you decline an invite to a wedding where your long-term partner had not been invited to, but are considering excluding children from your own wedding?

Theasinodia, it is only one day for the bride and groom, but for the guests it may be one of many invites piled up on the mantelpiece.

By the way, when I wrote that the wedding was pure 'hell', I mean it in the 'what-on-earth-were-we-thinking-bringing-a-toddler-to-an-8-hour-long-wedding', and not in the 'they-have-not-provided-special-guilded-spoons-for-us-to-eat-with' context. Just in case ;-)

We went to a wedding in Italy with our then 1.5 year old and it was pure hell. The timings were all wrong for our toddler schedule and anyway in typical pseudo-mediterranean fashion everything was delayed by about 2 hours which meant spending hours making polite chit chat whilst our hungry toddled screeched the place down and tried to smash anything within reach out of sheer boredom. We would take turns to take him for 'walks' which meant my husband and I barely had any time together and we spent a fortune buying our own lunch at a nearby restaurant because we could not wait any longer for our son to eat. Although our son was not specifically invited neither was he specifically excluded - we knew that we would be the only couple with children and no special consideration would have been made but we decided to go anyway. I think it is only fair that parents should be given the option of going on their own or taking their child with them. With hindsight we should not have taken our son to the Italian wedding, but I don't want anybody making the decision for me. To suggest that 'by not asking children to the wedding I am giving the parents a chance to let their hair down' is rubbish - if parents want to let their hair down I am sure they can make that decision themselves! I think if people don't want children at their wedding because they just don't want to, they should be honest about it and not wrap it up differently - it is their choice to do so, but in that case it might also be the parents' choice to decide they'd rather let their hair down at some other event!

Tesco had a buy one get free offer on punnets of kiwis so I went and fell for it even though my son will not eat them, so I was wondering if anybody had any easy ways of hiding them in desserts, smoothies etc??

I am Spanish and my husband is English and we'd love for our son to have some Spanish playmates too and encourage his Spanish since I end up talking mainly in English. The Dog on the 4th sounds pretty good but our son has a nap between 12 -2:30 too, so meeting in the afternoon would be much better otherwise he will just sit there and be hyperactive!

Hi MadDad, I think you misunderstood my post - my husband and I are not separated, we just share the drop/off pick up from nursery responsibility. Actually, today my husband is back from work early so we are both going to pick him up - I wonder if he will run away from both of us today, ha ha!

The Salvation Army centre down by Camberwell green used to have a session on Thursdays afternoon, but since I went back to work I have not been back and so I don't know if they are still running!

I'd say go for it. I am Spanish and my 2.3 son is completely bilingual already, although he prefers to speak in English. At this stage you can throw as many languages at them as you want and they will pick them up. I try to speak Spanish with him as much as possible but as I have lived in the UK for longer than I have lived in Spain, Spanish does not come naturally to me anymore and I express myself much better in English, so I don't speak Spanish to him that often as I probably should, yet he has picked it up. What I do is take him to Spain as often as possible (two or three times a year), and I have bought him a set of Sesame Street DVDs dubbed in Spanish which I think are great because they actually teach the kids words rather than the-very-awful-nightime-garden-thingy-which-I-can't-stand-the-sight-of (I am sure there will also be a set dubbed in French). I also have children's Spanish songs in CDs, and I read to him simple Spanish toddler books. I also cook him typical 'spanish' food from time to time so that he learns to distinguish between the two cultures (even though believe it or not I am not a great fan of tapas!).

Well, I am glad it is not just me! He is 2 years 3 months. In the mornings when I drop him off he gives me a kiss, says a brief byebye and turns away to start playing, clearly not bovvered! Thanks for the replies, made me feel a bit more relaxed about it, he is clearly having lots of fun at nursery!

Today I picked up my son from nursery and he very clearly did not want to come home. He completely ignored me when I arrived, resisted putting on his coat, clung to the nursery gates, tried to pull me back toward the nursery and cried throughout the walk home! What is going on?? It is usually my husband who picks him up from nursery in the afternoons and he has told me that although usually he is not quite so extreme as he was with me today, he also has to cajole him into putting on his coat and going home! This may be a stupid thing to worry about and it is probably one of those phases, but it kind of breaks my heart, and makes me wonder what is going on?! It is great to know he is so settled at nursery and having fun, but does he have to make such an obvious point of it? None of the other kids at his nursery seem to put up any resistance to going home. Not so long ago he would rush to my arms when I arrived at the nursery. Am I silly in worrying about this and is it just a phase? He only goes to nursery 2 days a week 9-5pm and the rest of the week I am with him and we always have a great time together. Anybody else in a similar situation?

If yes, I am writing an article on excessive exam stress and how children cope with it, and I would be interested in finding out the viewpoint of parents and/or the children, so if you are interested please send me a PM. Everything will be kept strictly anonymous of course!

I heat up the milk in a pyrex measuring jug in the microwave and then pour milk into bowls with readybrek porridge in them - saves burning my fingers when taking hot bowls out of the microwave!

My son is years and years away from going to secondary school, but as we live in Champion Hill (Denmark Hill but just behind the estate) this thread caught my eye and I have been reading it out of curiosity. As we live so close to Charter I always assumed that local kids go to Charter so I was surprised to find out that mainly they are not and I am wondering what other secondary school are they allocated to instead? Apart from Sacred Heart, which I consider is quite a trek from here and much further away than Charter (and is a Catholic school I think?), I can't think of any other secondary schools in the 'area' that would not need a bus trip?

I need to make a cushion for our window seat and I was wondering if it is possible to buy some foam locally which I can then cut to size? If there is nowhere locally, does anybody know of anywhere else in London? Many thanks!

Rachel83 - yes my son had a severe allergy to potato! He even had to go into hospital a few times because instead of getting just a bit blotchy as with the tomato, when he ate the slightest bit of potato he would vomit non stop for hours. I kept him completely off potato until recently and now he is fine with potato too.

My son had exactly the same, we just kept an eye on it and would have some 'cooling off' days when I didn't give him anything with tomato. He is 2 now and has grown out of it. He would also get red blotches on his hands and fingers where he held the tomato.

I am writing an article for an educational magazine on why teachers leave the profession, and I would be interested in speaking with a trainee teacher on their experience and what motivated them to become teachers. If you were once a teacher but decided to change career I would also be interested in hearing you reasons. Please send me a PM if you would like to speak with me. Many thanks for any help.

I am writing an article for an educational magazine on why teachers leave the profession, and I would be interested in speaking with a trainee teacher on their experience and what motivated them to become teachers. If you were once a teacher but decided to change career I would also be interested in hearing you reasons. Please send me a PM if you would like to speak with me. Many thanks for any help.

I like the idea of a stairgate but I suspect he would climb out of it straighaway! I think perhaps getting him a bed is the way forward, we are going to get him a bed anyway in the sales. In the meantime we have decided to choose a method and stick to it consistently for 2 weeks and see what happens (until now we have been trying different things each night). We are going to go with the 'put him straight back without engaging in conversation' technique (and trying to keep a straight face). Thanks for all your suggestions and fingers crossed. I miss my evenings!

The stairgate is a good idea - we live in a flat so I thought I would bypass the need for it, but it may be a solution. I hate the idea of caging him in, but it is definitely a thought.

Sometimes he naps during the day, sometimes he doesn't. I suppose I just have to stick to one method more consistently. Sigh - we even used to be able to watch a film in the evening (he wakes up at 6am too so no respite in the morning - he has always been an early bird so we are used to the early starts)

He is a clever little sausage and knows how to undo them, zips and everything. Having said this, he has just upped the game - just now he ran out of his room stark naked. If I wasn't so tired I'd find it quite funny (and I'm guessing that letting him think that he is hilarious is not going to help).

Does anybody know how to deal with a 2 year old boy who keeps getting up from his bed at bedtime? We have never had any bedtime trouble, but in the last 3 weeks our son climbs out of his cot as soon as we put him back in. He thinks it is one jolly game. So far we have tried: 1. Putting him straight back in a la suppernanny. However he just giggles and climbs straight back out, and he happily keeps this up for 2 hours. So we resorted to... 2. The naughty step. Which worked fine the first day, but after that he would climb out and happily go to the naughty step. Again he happily kept this up for at least 1 hour. 3. Reading him book after book after book, but all this does is delay the inevitable 'now go to sleep' moment and subsequent cot acrobatics. 4. Taking down one side of the cot and making a big fuss of what a big boy he is now (the fact that he can climb out of the cot when it is at it's highest setting is not an impediment for him). This just meant it was easier for him to get out - at least when he has to climb out of the cot it eventually tires him out. 5. Threatening to take toys away/no TV/no snack treats/you name it.......no effect. 6. Putting him to bed earlier (7:30pm) in case it is overtiredness. He'd still keeep the fun and games up for 2 hours so by the time he falls asleep it is past 9pm, meaning next day he is cranky as hell. We are at our wits' end and in the last week he has decided he would wake up at midnight too and start all over again during the dead of the night. How do we cope with a boy who finds getting out of bed/cot hilarious fun and who thinks the naughty step is fun??? As I type this my husband is chasing him down the corridor with him in a fit of giggles....