sillywoman

Sqiggles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Have you looked at sitters.co.uk - they use > regular sitters, who have childcare expeience, and > seem to me to be very reliable - much more > releiable than some of the teenagers who cancel on > you when a better offer comes along! And you can > ask for particlaur sitters once you get to know > them. Squiggles, I would never allow my teenage daughter to do this. Never. I make sure she is very reliable & impress on her the importance of a professional attitude to her babysitting work. Her friends are the same. Re; the cost she's only a teenager & so not a childcare professional but I think she & her friends charge ?4.50 per hour.

Depends how they're feeling. On days when he's feeling a bit pathetic my just 7 year old will still ask for help in the morning. Sometimes I give it, sometimes I pull my "really?" face & he know he's on a loser! Of course he can (& mostly does) get himself dressed. Often with interesting results mind you! Also depends how fast you need it doing. If you've all the time in the world the your 2.8 year old could do it. If you have to get out for nursery then you need to help him so you can get the job done. You'll probably find that by not making a big deal of it & helping & encouraging him "Oh wow, you did that t shirt all by yourself, well done! etc.etc. blah, blah" he'll be all the keener to do it himself anyway. I think the nursery are being a bit tough to insist that he puts his shoes on all by himself. Under 4 or 5 they're still babies really and with tricky stuff like shoes I think it's quite reasonable to need some help at his age.

Bathroom scales? You weigh yourself without baby, then weigh yourself with & subtract. Simples - as my son would say (annoyingly).

I never used reward charts so can't comment, other than to say lots of my friends used them - some liked them, some didn't. Not particularly helpful I know. I just wanted to post something about the beating-up baby sister thing. I have been through this a few times and what I found helped was rather than use the "naughty step, strong telling-off, denying her telly, taking her out of the bath etc" approach , or the "just praise for being nice" I would do the "take the focus away from the bad behaviour" approach. This isn't as wishy-washy as it sounds. An example being, if both were in the bath & older one is rough or mean in some way to younger child. I would take younger child out, give them a lot of cuddles and fuss away from older one (though still in the room for safety's sake). I would completely ignore the child who had 'committed the offense' no matter what they were doing/ saying whilst giving a huge amount of fuss & cuddles to the victim. I might shoot the odd stern or 'sad and disappointed'- depending on which was appropriate- glance in the direction of the perpetrator. This method always seemed to produce good results very quickly as the older one just isn't getting any of the attention they crave, (and get with the naughty step, telling off stuff). So they quickly learn that it's pointless doing it. Often the older child would want to talk about the incident to me later and I'd just say something brief but stern along the lines of " X is Mummy's child and it makes me sad when you hurt him/her. In the same way I would be sad if anyone hurt you. I don't like it when people hurt my babies". Keep it impersonal and move on quickly. The idea is that their behaviour is so obviously unacceptable in your house that you don't need to spend a lot of time discussing it . Anyway, sorry for the long ramble, but I remember well that " aaaargh, how do I handle this feeling" and just wanted to post another thing that you might try if you fancied it.

:))

As GinaG3 says, it's only effective as a contraception if your child is taking nothing else at all, only breastmilk, with no more than 3 hours between feeds. So once they start solids at 6 months, or if you do the odd bottle of formula or expressed milk from any time then it stops being effective as a contraceptive.

Yes, I'm in favour of an M&S, or waitrose too. Personal preference for M&S, but not fussed. Wouldn't need Co-op then, but would quite like to keep Iceland. Not sure why, possibly just nostalgia? Hmmmmm?

Ooops - sorry, "bottom" not "bum"!! Bad mother!

My daughter has done/had this on and off for some years now. Everytime it gets to the point where I think maybe I should get it checked it seems to disappear for another few months or years. A good friend said it was probably a tick and my instinct is that, on our case that's right. SHe seems to get it when she's having an emotional growth spurt or sometimes if she's under a bit of stress (I say 'a bit' of stress because she actually leads the life of riley and wouldn't know real stress if it bit her on the bum, but that's off topic - apologies). She's nearly 15 now and I started to notice it when she was about 9 - so some years older than your little one, but it may be the same type of thing?

Me too Keef

. . . to all you lovely East Dulwich (& further afield) Mums & Dads. May 2011 bring love, light & good health to you & those you love. Love, SW

Also, didn't someone just post about a midwife running private antenatal classes at the Magdala in the evenings - I have a feeling they were evening sessions? Look a bit further down the message list James84, it was very recent - in the last couple of days I think - so I'm sure you'll find it. Having said that the ED hospital classes are very good, very informative, run by a lovely, lovely midwife. And yes, there are some NCT classes running in West Dulwich that are evening only I believe. When are you looking to do the classes btw?

Got no suggestions, but just wanted to say that January birthdays do get better ClareC. My daughter has for the last few years gone ice skating at Somerset house with a large group of friends, then home with them for a chinese & dvd afterwards - she says it's magical. Before that, as a younger child, she had some lovely birthday sleepovers with christmas tree lights strung all round her room. Yours is a bit too small for these things yet, but her time will come.

and that wonderful post should surely be the last word?

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > BB, I get what you're saying-but is there really > any need to be leary about it? Equally, I think > people correcting people on spelling or grammar, > need to have a word with themselves. Ok Keef, have had word with self and agree - am a bit ashamed of myself now. That was petty and I apologise. Your sour-puss tone & attitude just gets to me BB and I responded inappropriately. Sorry. Edited to say; will go and kick heels behind the bike shed for a bit now. Got any choccy biscuits left Molly?

'board', not 'bored' - sorry to be pedantic.

BB - not sure you've quite got the hang of what the family room is about? HH's OP has led to a little tongue-in-cheek venting. Most of us love our partners - unreconstructed though they can be at times. We're just sharing stories of their quirks with other's who can empathise. It's light hearted moaning - it helps to know that others feel the same. Life is long, marriage/relationships with significant others are also long, and very rarely perfect. It's good to know that despite your failings and theirs, there are others out there following a similar path through the ups and downs of being parents and maintaining a relationship. It's lovely that you and Mr berryberry have such a grown up and serious relationship and are approaching parenthood with such a very mature attitude. You'd probably find that the other posters on this forum have a similar relationship with their partners in RL just with added humor. They just enjoy chatting about the quirks within it with others of a similar mind and sense of humor. As HH said, why read the thread if the 'venting' was so likely to offend your sense of what it is to be 'grown up'? HH; your linen looks spotless from here :)) Moos; I'm definitely up for a quick fag behind the bikesheds, & I've got a bottle of vodka I can bring. Sensibleman is definitely more 1950's than I first realised (should've known when he said his Mum 'never sat down' with a tinge of pride - I, on the other hand, don't get off my bum unless forced to) but he does do almost all of the hoovering & loads of other stuff too. It all seems to come out in the wash. Dickensman; my experience so far is that those early years are tough, tough, tough physically and emotionally. there's a middle bit which is a doddle and mostly lovely - sort of primary school age. Then in the teens it gets tough again because they're always one step ahead of you & you're brain's a bit knackered, and they stay up, and out later than you (but you have to stay up to bring them home/ make sure they get in safely) and have horrible mood swings - but it's quite exhilarating seeing them blossom and it's a completely different kind of tough from those early years (e.g. who'd have thought my lovely sensitive DH would become a VictorianFather, & that I would have turned from Mrs GinaFord to Mrs Leftie-liberal? Makes for some interesting convo's in our house). I think you sound a bit unnecessarily 'voice of doom' Dickensman - most of these lovely people & their other halves will do what everyone does, and what they did in the early years, and muddle though well enough. Keef; can you teach sensibleman that the cooker doesn't bite?

The GP is a General Practitioner. In essence, they can diagnose & treat general or common ailments and refer patients on to experts for more complex health issues. The paediatrician is one of those experts. Their specific area of expertise is child health. Of course child health is itself a large area and so you will find some pediatricians that specialise in particular ailments or age groups (not sure how specialism within paediatrics works? Hopefully someone who knows better will come along soon). Like BeccaL I'm surprised that you saw both of them together. I'd be inclined to go with the Paed's advice but would agree that if you post more info about your situation and the advice given (by both medics) on here you'll probable find someone who has had similar or the same experience who can be of help to you.

Am really enjoying it too Fuschia - I am 'God-dy' but live a family of atheists & agnostics. Sadly kids are too glued to x-box, PS & Wii-fest to pay much attention to it. I swear their eyes are really & truly going square. Still, agnostic hubby is finding it interesting.

Keep in mind that DVI, whilst absolutely lovely, is only an infant school. If your babies go there you'll have to do this whole application rigmarole again in 2 or 3 years time. With all the others once you're in, you're in.

I thought you looked lovely @ B&B on Monday - maybe I met a different Ruth_Baldock? Have you got a twin? :)) P.S. I'm sure there are vitamins of some kind in Quality Street.

are now available. Please PM me if you want one. For anyone who hasn't read the relevant thread - an idea was proposed that local Mums might wear an innocuous badge as a signifier to other Mums at playgroups & coffee mornings that you were a Mum open to a chat. This came about after a discussion on how hard it could be to begin a conversation at these places, and the knock to a new Mums self esteem that can occur after having a baby. If you'd like badge just post here or PM me. They're also available at Goose Green Bumps & babes on a Monday morning.

Right then, museums it is! Is it worth a trip to Regent street to see the lights - or is that old hat nowadays?

Aaaargh! have just looked at the black hole that is 2 weeks Christmas holiday. Anyone got any suggestions for things to do with a 7, 10 & 12 year old. Free or cheap is best cos - as ever - our bank account is looking very bare in the lead up toward the big day.

Is it a proper Christingle with Oranges & sweeties?