Smiler

Good for toys and sitting on if waiting around. Menace when children run over people's toes with them!

The private wing of king's has a range of specialists.

HOMum, sorry you're having problems, can relate to tha. there are lots of these kinds of discussions in RL too, especially in ED! Can be hard. There are a fair few forumites who have or have had fertility issues.

I am feelng major kitchen envy here, my worktop is 1980s beige!

Hats off to you all! We ideally wanted three but decided against it for fertility/psychological/medical reasons. Feel OK about it, occasionally wistful but remind myself of the sleep deprivation! Mr Smiler gets broody occasionally, but likewise cheers himself with the thought of sleep/no more toilet training/cash! Have several friends and family with three, the ones with small age gaps seem to have a lot of work on their hands! They are all (for the moment) SAHMs, I don't know of any women at work with three young children, perhaps the childcare is just too tricky at that stage.

Buggie, we live in surrey now, the most popular local primary has the system you describe, prioritises "local" children over siblings of current pupils now living further away. It does prevent people renting temporarily (when I was in Dulwich Heber was popular and there was high turnover of rentals very nearby), but means that only those who can afford high housing costs for a number of years can get into the school. There seems to be around ?100,000 premium on the price of family houses in catchment!

For what reason fly?

Good luck eigh the venture!

First baby I looked round tommy's but chose king's because of the much shorter journey, which was quite important in the end. Also, not that many women actually get to deliver in the "home from home" unit in tommy's as you have to move to the main labour ward if necessary. Second time we moved house when was 36 weeks pregnant so I switched to st helier in sutton, nearest big hospital which was good and the staff far less stretched than kings (fewer births there), they had a nice new birthing unit too (but again not suitable for all births).

Some Kings consultants do private appointments, st mary's too, she could probably to find her nearest big hospital and look on their website, there are usually lists of consultants. Not cheap, ?150-?200+ for appointment, plus additional costs for any tests or treatment. Hope your friend is ok.

Grrrr. Our school did pyjamas and bring in favourite book, which was at least better than costumes. Have noticed that it's almost always women sorting this school crap out!

My friend had this with her september-born son and switched from private day nursery to a school one (she also had to get new childcare since school nursery hours weren't ideal for working parents), the change helped them.

I am trying to pursue this with Surrey County Council (late August 2010 daughter), am not hopeful! The July 2013 DfE guidance is clear that there should be parental choice, including to start in reception aged 5, but it doesn't have legal force in the same way that starting PT or later in the reception year does, so it's down to the local/admissions authority really. There's a facebook page.

We commute from surrey on a slow (but cheap) train line to london victoria / bridge, takes 75-90 mins door to door. Advantages: nice house with garden (not an option for us in ED), great childcare options (cheaper too), public services and trades are less stretched (eg never a problem getting GP appointment), we can do stuff by car at weekends without getting stuck in traffic. Less pollution. Nice for small children (although so is london of course). Cinema, leisure centre, big DIY shops, town with high st shops all 5 mins drive away. Disadvantages: commuting so long is exhausting and is "dead time" (neither work nor home), the area is really quiet at night, no good local restaurants/take-aways, everyone drives everywhere, rubbish public transport. suspect this area wouldn't be great for teens. I miss the ED parks a lot. We have some good green spaces, but they are wilder, no public loos or lattes!

I am outside london now, but my daughter started NHS speech therapy (where am now, where the service seems quite good) at 2 years three months, when she had only a few words and made few sounds, over the following year she had 12 one to one sessions, a break, assessment, then 8 small group sessions, assessment, and currently on a break for 3 months after which she'll probably have more group sessions. The first stage where I am now was an assessment by a SAL therapist, HA referred us at 2 (waiting times around 3 months). They will be interested in your history of SAL problems as a child, as think this can be inherited. There is a lot of stuff you can do at home while waiting, I will private message you 2 pages of tips my speech therapist friend up north gave me. She warned me that private therapy can be v expensive and to go for someone with specialism in early years (she rang several in my area and wasn't satisfied!) My daughter is now 3 years 5 months and has made huge progress,although her speech/language isn't quite up to where she should be for her age ( if you see what I mean), so she struggles to keep up with her playgroup friends' conversation and stammers (therapist says is often a phase with children with speech issues). She is a lovely singer though!

Going rate where I am (home counties ) is around ?5-?7 hour, more for before/after-school only, paying half or full rate for any hours in preschool, not paying for holidays or bank holidays.

Unregistered childminding isn't legal or sensible!

A friend whose son has multiple, severe allergies is under the Evelina Children's Hospital and says it's good.

Sonners, another option is to ask your GP to write to the hospital with your questions. My GP did this, and the file was dug out, hospital doctor looked into it and I had a follow-up appointment, v useful.

Pebbles, that's a clever idea. Mr Smiler recently agreed to have two gigantic, ugly green old chairs from his father, installed when I was away (we don't have the space and anyway the are horrible), father in law said "glad you could have them, couldn't have sold them, they're a fire hazard!" grrr. I guess could re-upholster them with football shirts, but doubt being emblazened with "rooney" could improve these chairs!

!!! Where I live now is quite horsey, maybe should get some friends and vodka one saturday morning and go up on the hills for a prance!

daily mail spin?

You can get internet cheapie ovulation test strips, similar thing, easy to use, but much cheaper!

V funny response, and fab that ED Forumite can translate!

We moved to small town surrey because of house prices and because Mr Smiler hated london living, 1.5 hour commute door to door (no tube though, which is a plus). Two small children. No local family. Pros: childcare (much more choice, cheaper, better quality). Space (detached house, garden, green space). Less pollution. Less pressure on public services (can always get a dr appointment, and see regular dr if you want to). Much less traffic - can do quick trips by car, eg DIY shop, family weekend outings, that in ED would take ages. schools mostly have good green space. Local cinema/theatres. Community more mixed age-wise than ED, e.g. elderly ladies and gents verypleased to see babies around! Cons: very quiet - streets often empty, everyone in their houses or driving. Poor public transport (suspect is crap for teens). Commuting eats up family/work time and exhausting. Public parks not as good as ED ones. Few/poor restaurants and take-aways. Community less diverse. Lots of people here have one partner (almost always the man) commuting and the other at home or in a local, very part-time (and low paid) job. This wasn't what we wanted, but looks easier, except for the finances!