Moos

We've been teaching our small son for about a year now about crossing roads - hold the hand of the person you're with, look all ways and listen for traffic and always wait for the green man light at the pedestrian crossing even if the road looks clear. Trouble is, the safety message is somewhat undermined by the fact that almost every time we cross, someone barrels over in front of us as soon as there's a gap between cars. Now I do appreciate that my son's road crossing skills are not the concern of the general public and that someone in a hurry probably won't be paying attention to the road-crossing lesson going on next to them, but I do sometimes look a bit wistfully especially at parents crossing with prams, or people crossing with older children and wonder whether it would be too much to expect people who are not in a huge rush to stop and wait for the green man to show an example to young children also waiting. (not that parents can't be in a huge rush or anything - just perhaps expect parents to be more aware than the average bod of other kids around) Am I overly caught up in my own importance here? I'm starting to think I must be.

Maybe not, DJKQ, but thoroughly relevant to the points Katharine Birlbalsingh was making, and IMO a far greater threat to fairness in education than the faith school question.. ;-)

mockney piers Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------ > ih-uuuur*. > > *not sure how to spell the sound the family > fortunes computer used to make. Surely it has an h in it? But other than that important point, I very much agree.

SCSB79 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Some people need to get out more. My absolute favourite type of forum arsepost, the 'you lot need to get a life' post. Who needs to get out more, the original poster or the person who posts to say you need to get out more?

louisiana Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As the OP, maybe I should remind peeps that the > original point of this post was to draw attention > to this stunningly poor 'faith school' in our > borough, not a couple of miles from our front > doors. I agree that the discussion on faith schools is an important and relevant one. But the issues raised by Katharine Birbalsingh are not about faith schools, they weren't even specifically about the school, although she drew examples from it. Nor does the Standard article or the OFSTED link the status of the school to its performance. The school's performance is a red herring to this discussion - either we argue that faith schools criminalise children and cause them to underperform - and no evidence for this has yet been given on this thread - or we argue that faith school often perform well but are unfairly discriminatory as they exclude children who would want to attend them.

'Fessing up to being a lardy, Juicy-Couture'd sofa-dweller is one thing. To being a friend of Tarot??

I like it too - as with the original, he's a hit with the ladies..

Well said, o lunching one. Bad Science, not that I'd pay ?14 for a bib but it's funny...

I have an orange-berried pyracantha and hardly ever see birds on it - it could be to do with the cats, of which there are plenty locally but I don't think any of them is enterprising enough to scale a tall pyracantha in search of birdlife.

Nero, bless you, but calling yourself a pedlo (or rather not a pedlo) is quite funny.

Haven't seen dirtgirlworld but a lot of programming aimed at very small girls seems horribly sexual to me. I caught a clip from a Chipmunks movie recently in which the girl chipmunks were singing and dancing, all pouting at the camera and shaking their chipmunk asses for all they were worth. Most bizarre. Oh, and Physics' post definitely gets strop of the week award. Brilliant.

A good discussion, and I agree with the points that KidKruger is making. However, I think the original question was whether a child small enough to fit on its parent's lap (let's say, up to the age of 4?) ought to be asked to do so when the bus is full. And to me the answer is yes, as it simply allows for more space. Of course there are exceptions one can think of (for example a heavily pregnant mother often hasn't got much lap to offer) but they should be fairly obvious. I force my 3 year old to sit on my lap on crowded buses, but he does it with embarrassingly ill grace, I'm afraid to say.

Sillywoman (tu) Great story, thanks.

Brendan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Where the fuckis essex? Ha ha, you've picked up the local lingo quickly, Surrey Man!

Perhaps for someone so little you need to keep the rule very simple. We used to say 'no throwing in the house' and then the only things allowed to be thrown outsid were balls. I wouldn't try to distinguish between 'throwing that's naughty but not dangerous' (food) and 'throwing that's naughty and dangerous'(at people) - maybe a bit too complicated. Best of luck

Oh, sod it. I'm not going to play.

Ooh, I remember Spangles. We never worked out if she was the same person as Natasha, did we?

I'm not sure what it is. The constant 'Why's are a bit trying, but basically the sign of a little person becoming more aware of what's around and wanting to understand - fair enough. Maybe it's to do with the strengthening of personality and a stronger sense of entitlement, combined with a greater understanding which sometimes leads to more insecurity and fears. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but Gaaawd the nagging that the simplest task requires, whether going to the lavatory or co-operating with tooth-brushing, or putting pyjamas on, or going upstairs. It's so tiring. Still, I hear that 4 is a huge improvement, as they become more able to reason? (she said, hopefully)

In my opinion, private school education really does have to be seen as a choice. 93% of the population attend state school, which is indeed a necessity.

I know this isn't going to encourage the people hoping to escape the terrible twos, but has anyone else found 3+ much worse? I think we got off quite lightly aged 2, and now suddently everything's a drama that provokes a crying fit. Weird. Or maybe the Moosling's just really slow... :)

Many thanks both

Wow Ted, that's amazing. It does explain the spooky cold feeling I get before I go through the front door. Either that, or the fact that I have to stand outside for about half an hour while I work out where my keys are.

I shall show this thread to the lady that carved it!

Here's our best one so far - no credit to me though.

Sorry Brenda - over-sensitive. Last time I admitted to someone I believed in God they said 'well, I just think medicine is more efficacious than prayer'. Er, what?