oimissus

there's a short film (about 6 minutes) called Polar Bear Man which you can get on YouTube - I think it's specifically about climate change but might be relevant.

gosh, who knew that stabilizers were such a bad thing. 'Dependent on them'? - they're not hard drugs! No balance bikes when I was a kid, you just had stabilizers for a bit and at some point they just went. It's not like they'll be still using them when they're 10. Some children get on with balance bikes, some don't (or never have a balance bike), they'll learn to ride a bike either way.

slightly unrelated, but please make sure you leave your contact details with all neighbours that will be affected by the building work - our neighbours buggered off for months leaving us no way to get in touch with them, which was awkward to say the least...!

how do you know it has the space to bulge? Schools need more than just classroom space to bulge successfully, they need hall space to, to accomodate lunches, assemblies and indoor PE, as well as have enough playground space. What I would like to know is why a massive school (in terms of space, not number of pupils) like St John's and St Clements doesn't have to bulge - I know that it has 3 humungous halls so can easily accomodate more children, but it can refuse to bulge (and does, as far as I can tell), whilst other schools are cramming children into inappropriate spaces. Congrats to Bessemer!

yes, I did. It was one of those ones where there's no signage at all on the street where you think you've legally parked (single yellow on a Sunday - this was in Birmingham), but the council claim you are in a restricted parking zone. We went back and walked a good few streets out and couldn't find any signage to indicate we were in any such zone, which is what I said in my appeal. Never heard from them again.

I think the point is that they are all single-sex schools so unless your children are all the same sex, there is no sibling priority. And presumably those families just crack on. Same with those who have a child/children at primary and secondary at the same time. When the number of siblings can account for half or more of a school's places then that system isn't working, especially if there is no check to see if the sibling is still local to the school. There might be a case to be made at primary but secondary? I don't think so.

aren't secondary school children getting themselves to school? Even if you wanted to accompany a younger child just starting, the older child should be able to travel alone, or with their chums? I don't get why the should be automatic sibling priority at secondary, especially as siblings can end up taking up so many spaces, and that they may not be especially local any more.

the Scope shop on Rye Lane (I think it's Scope) takes them, we have bought many a Disney video there.

Celia Hammond pretty much always have kittens to rehome. They will want you to take either 2 kittens or the mother and 1 kitten, they will not home one kitten by itself. Battersea wouldn't give us kittens as we worked full-time, CH's view was that our house with big garden was better than their rescue centre.

we went through one at about 27mph about 3 weeks ago, also very confused, but haven't had anything so hopefully it was OK. The whole thing is a shambles. I am now crawling down Denmark Hill/Herne Hill each week, a broad, not-busy main road with very few pedestrians about (also on very wide pavements) and cars going at different speeds. If everyone was just looking at a 30mph limit it would be so much more sensible, on that road at any rate. Sort it out, Southwark!

ballet is at the South London Dance Studios in Herne Hill, it's pretty formal and strict (eg Miss Oi has to have her hair in a classical ballet bun), follows the Royal Bellet School curriculum, I think. Miss Oi likes it but it's probably not for everyone. Gymnastics is Southwark Gymnastics, the hold sessions at Camberwell pool and Brunswick Park School, seems quite informal. A good starting point to see how they get on and if they enjoy it.

my 5yo does ballet & tap, gymnastics and swimming, all after school. She wants to do ballet, as far as I'm concerned she has to learn how to swim and gymnastics I thought she'd be quite good at, though it's the one she seems least fussed about. When she's old enough we'll look at athletics and some kind of climbing - all she really wants to do is run and climb! And maybe musical theatre, I think she'd love that. All in an effort to wear her out and go to sleep at a reasonable hour. It's not working.

yes, they were more than supportive and got on the phone to the anaesthetist as soon as the words came out of my mouth!

yes, I gave it a whirl on Denmark Hill/Herne Hill (an utterly ridiculous road to have a 20mph limit on), and most cars weren't doing it, though I wouldn't say any were driving dangerously, in fact it was me driving dangerously I felt, especially as I found it pretty hard to keep under 20, I was on and off the accelerator the whole time and looking at my speedo a lot. So I gave up after a few minutes of that, I felt like I could cause a crash more than prevent one!

excellent post Ty, thanks for coming back. Interesting the sweeping generalisations some idiots take from posts that turn out to be way off the mark...

I really don't think you can give up on a new job because of one holiday, however much you've been looking forward to it (understandably, of course). Is there any reason why the others can't go on the holiday? In a year's time you probably won't regret not having this holiday, you could easily regret not taking this opportunuity. What reason would you give to your potential employer for turning down their offer?

if you don't like the 'same old stuff', Louisa, then don't read or post on it - just because it's old news to you doesn't make it any less valid to those for whom this is something new and quite upsetting. Dulwichdarling - so you think that children who are frightened of dogs (almost certainly because of a bad experience they have had) should stay out of parks, but untrained dogs with no recall (and there are plenty of those about in the parks around here) should be allowed to carry on as they are? This is a two-way street, surely - parents need to teach their children how to behave around dogs (and I include in that confident kids who aren't scared of dogs asking permission of the owner before they go up to a dog - just because the kid isn't scared doesn't mean the dog is happy), and dog owners need to teach their dogs recall, and both parties need to keep an eye on their charges, intervene when necessary and take responsibility when necessary. No?

I have to agree with this last comment - I don't think I often see people driving too fast, but I see someone on their phone pretty much every time I get in the car. I would also like to see some kind of clampdown on cyclists after dark with no lights and no hi-vis, you get a lot of this around Peckham. I'd be intersted to know how good it is for a car to be driven in 2nd or 3rd gear for 15/20 minutes at a time.

Chadwick Road isn't bad, nowhere like as awful as the Crystal Palace Road one seems to be.

Wouldn't bother me at all, sounds like the kind of day we have every so often, and that's 2 meals I could guarantee my child would actually eat! Maybe, as she wasn't your usual CM and was just doing cover, she went for very 'safe' meals that most children would eat. But if your child is happy to eat a large variety then let her know and ask what other kinds of thing she provides.

I'm afraid we went for the child's-head-clamped-between-my-knees approach and squirted it in with a syringe (though I had to buy a syringe as the one that came with the medicine was very stiff). It was repellent stuff, bright yellow and banana-flavoured (yeuch!) but as she was ill enough to be prescribed them, then she has to take them, end of. But I'm quite mean about things like that!

you could get a special blankie toy/comforter for the baby - if big brother has one he's unlikely to be passing it on to his wee brother!

we've got them is Asda in the past.

we did a lot of shopping around for DD's Snow White dress a couple of years back and settled on the Asda one. But her Elsa and Anna dresses are Sainsbury's, which are very good - she also got a lovely witch dress from there last year. Disney store dresses are awful, I would never buy from there, never the nicest and swooningly expensive! Their knickers are very good though, the only pants I have found that don't gape at the top of the leg, and not expensive either.

aarrgghh, just lost my message. Suffice to say, Frozen is a PG so why a nursery is theming on this film I can't think.My daughter wasn't watching any PG films under the age of 4 - more like 4 and a half. That would be my main bone of contention.