snss75

I think for example many of the au pairs in the area would be up for extra babysitting and I imagine their families would give them reference. I certainly would for mine! Might be worth just advertising on the forum?

My 5 year old does taekwon-do at Goodrich school on Tuesdays (they also run a class on Thursdays), see http://www.mazuki.com/. He loves it, new classes start next week. Swimming classes offered at Peckham Pulse as well.

I don't even have a baby and now I want one too! How cool is this?!? May have to make a baby just for this, lol.

Au'Lait, that's how I felt as well :)) Always wondered if I was the only one (except for my poor mom who has to put up with my dad, lol). This thread makes me smile, let's come back after the bank holidays and see who's ended up relaxed and who's not... Merry Christmas to everyone!

I love this thread, lol! Proud to announce that have today managed a full day in bed ;-) Unfortunately have been feeling so ill that couldn't really do anything else... Luckily I happended to get sick on a weekday and have had my lovely au pair looking after the 5 year old and hence actually managed some sleep. So, no thanks to the husband really but he's has taken over the bath duty tonight so maybe there is hope :)) or could just be his early Christmas present to me? Anyway, I'll take it whichever way I can!

In case you need to see a doctor and can't get an appointment at your regular GP but don't want to go to A&E then the Hurley Group Practice at Lister Primary Care Centre on Peckham Road may be worth a try as they do all day walk-in clinic Mon-Sun, from 8am to 8pm. Here are their details: http://www.nhs.uk/ServiceDirectories/Pages/GP.aspx?pid=CDDDA84E-A248-45C6-8672-717FA2A8858A.

I'm so with you, sounds very much like my husband! (6) I remember quite clearly one occasion when our son was still a little baby and I was on maternity leave... I must have caught the flu, had quite a high fever and was feeling so bad that couldn't really stand up. So, home comes the husband from work and finds me laying down on the floor trying to find the energy to entertain or at least rock the baby in his bouncer seat. When I asked him if could take over with the baby for a bit because I really wasn't feeling very well he thought he was too tired... That's the day when I figured out how this was going to work and haven't really asked since :)) Most of the time I don't really mind but man are there times that I could think of loads of unpleasant things to do to the husband... >:D

JulietLeach, I'm not sure about the language courses as our au pairs haven't felt the need or wanted to attend a language course (their level of English has always been quite good). As for the social aspect, I'm not aware of any general au pair meets in the area but our au pairs have always been quite happy to meet new people so feel free to pm me when your au pair arrives if she's interested in meeting ours :). LittleEDfamily, I've always used the aupair world website http://www.aupair-world.net/index.php/ and I know few other people here on the forum have successfully used it. Apologies for not having time to share personal experiences, just squeezing in a quick forum break at work... we've had 5 au pairs so far so happy to discuss with either of you, just pm me if you're interested!

In Scandinavia we wouldn't even dream of sending our kids, boys or girls, out in in cold without tights for girls and little long johns for boys! As duchessofdulwich said, little boys do wear tights but mostly as little babies as we have long johns for even little baby boys in Scandinavia, very handy as the little boys are not keen on tights but are happy to wear "big boy" underwear like daddy! So for a couple of years now I've had mine shipped from Finland :)) I've actually been wondering about this and why e.g. H&M doesn't sell them here when they sell them in everywhere in Scandinavia! Just figured that maybe there was no demand but looking at this thread I'd imagine there would be?

My son is tall as well and we got the Maxi Cosi Rodi XR for him when he outgrew his Maxi Cosi Priori. We've always had the Maxi Cosi seats and have been very happy with them and my son has also always liked them as well. I think this is quite similar to the Britax equivalent that litteEDfamily mentioned as in it is essentially a booster seat with detachable backrest (handy for e.g. trips when you can bring just the booster part with you and also when your child gets bigger and no longer needs/wants the backrest). Ours has good head & side supports, can be made taller/wider, has belt hooks for routing of the seat belt so that it can be adapted to the size of the child and this one also has a relaxed reclining position for both small and larger children (which we've never used). See http://www.houseofbaby.co.uk/shop/Maxi_Cosi_Rodi_XR.html?gclid=CPbsgbm8tKUCFYSK4AodhxANYA. It does come in pink as well :) but you may have to look for it as it does not seem readily available (http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplayA_329_10751_-1__59847_10001_).

I used to take my son to soft play all the time (now he's in reception) and most of the time it was great and the kids behaved well. Unfortunately, on occasion, have come across with similar problems where a child is behaving really badly or even dangerously and either not listening to his/her parents/carers or more often the parents/carers not paying any attention to the child. Personally I have no problem "telling off" (firmly telling them to stop, don't mean having a go or shouting at them) someone else's child if the parent/carer is not there or doesn't seem to care, especially if it seems that other children may get hurt etc. Trust me, I tell mine off plenty... If something like that ever happens again I'd firmly tell the child to stop and also speak to the parent/carer and if that doesn't help talk to the staff. The staff there are generally very nice & helpful but also pretty strict about following the rules. I do not see why you should be the one to leave simply because your baby is being harassed by a mean older child! Stuff like this REALLY annoys me, I'd never allow my child to behave that way! If I had told my child 2 times to stop it and he didn't, we'd be the ones out the door! Agree with Claire29, the 9.30 session is generally very good and you don't get that many "big" children. Don't give up!

I think it depends on the employer to certain extent. Some places that I know of put it down as the employee's sick leave, i.e. don't differentiate between you & your child (which can be good if there's no limit to number of paid sick leave you can take in a year) and I even know someone who has to take it as holiday which I think is outrageous (is that even legal?). I think I'm quite lucky as my employer marks it down as "dependant care leave" which is generally paid even though they say it's discretionary. As there is no stated limit for the number of days one can take as dependant care leave I suppose they will start discussing taking it unpaid if the days keep piling up. I'm no legal expert but I do think that as a parent you are legally entitled to take time off to care for a sick child but I suppose the employer doesn't have to pay you for it? Correct me if I'm rong anyone. I have to say that I'd have a serious issue with your employer as well, not much you can do if your child is ill (6), it's difficult enough without getting the attitude about it at work...

As womanofdulwich said, I think there are also loads of things you can do at home to help her with her "awareness". If your daughter likes to do things on the computer there are also a number of good websites that do loads of phonics games etc. that are fun but educational. My son who's in reception got a list from school and his teacher said that they actively use at least one of the websites at school. My son loves the alphablocks game on cbeebies for example (although this was not one of the "recommended" sites), http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/atoz/#/lb/alphablocks/alphablocksgames. If you're interested I can pm you the list he got from school.

Another vote for aupair world, have found all of our 5 au pair there. I also agree with dulwichmum on the au pairs already in the UK, be careful if you decide to go down that road. There are often very legitimate reasons why an au pair may have chosen to change families but there are also quite a few who have been given the boot as they were useless and are then not telling the truth about the circumstances. For example, I asked our previous au pair to leave (read: fired her) after 2 months for number of reason that I'm not going to get into here... I've heard that another two families have subsequently fired her! What I found amazing was that neither of these families wanted to contact me prior to hiring her but just believed the stories she told them about her time with us & circumstances of her departure! I happen to know someone who knows the 2nd family where she went so I've actually heard the stories she's told... Anyway, if you do find someone who's here already, DEFINITELY get in touch with the previous family for a reference. My current au pair was actually already in the UK (found her through aupair world as well) when I hired her: she wanted to change families and I was happy to hire her as her previous family gave her a good reference & they were on good terms. She's working out well for us so it can work but I'd be extra careful. Like dulwichmum, I've had loads of experience with au pairs so far, excellent, good and unfortunately also bad so happy to discuss if you'd like! Good luck!

My son goes to Bellenden and it is a lovely school. As mumra said there is at least one male teacher and the new head teacher is a man. They only have one reception class and I think the catchment area may actually be quite small (according to the stats from 2010 distance of last child offered a place was 521m). My son went to nursery there as well and quite a few of the kids in the nursery didn't get into reception tis year even though they wanted to. For us it is our closest school, we're on Lyndhurst Way and it seems that many of the families with kids in reception this year live quite close to the school or are siblings. I think you are within a chance and if you like it I'd definitely apply for a place there. Good luck!

I agree with nunheadmum, I'd go for a "real" computer/laptop as well. My son is 5 and he now competently uses our home PC/laptop to find his website like cbeebies etc. on the internet and plays the games there. He has some of the toy laptops etc. that every now and again get pulled out of the box but don't really hold his interest for long. Since starting reception he loves doing his phonics & numbers on the computer and there are so many good, educational websites for this purpose that I wouldn't spend money on the toys for this age group.

I don't know if it's something you'd consider instead of e.g. running but if you're interested then some good & effective pilates/yoga dvds that you could do any time at home could be an option? You could squeeze in a bit of exercise at any time that suits you, e.g. before the little ones wake up or after they've gone to bed even if you were on your own with them.

I can recommend Bellenden, my son is now in reception, following 1.5 years of Bellenden nursery and he's always been very happy there and now loves school! To the extent that he prefers school days over weekend... It's a lovely small school with caring staff and I feel that my son is being well looked after there. PM me if you wish to discuss.

Moos, my 5 year old is very particular about waiting for the green man and merrily tells strangers who are crossing the road while we're waiting that they are naughty, must come back as it's a red man... :)) I've tried to tell him that what other people do doesn't matter so long as we're waiting for the green man and most of the time people seem to find it funny when he "tells them off". I don't dare to even think about crossing the road if there's no green man in sight when I'm with him :)

You could try Morrisons in Peckham or Asda on Old Kent Road if they are not too far for you, they usually have a good selection of Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, Spongebob etc. Yes, we check these out every week :))...

I'm actually one of the higher rate tax payer, main breadwinner, non-single mothers who would be affected by this proposal. While I'm not at all fussed about losing the ?80 a month I don't agree with the proposal for the reasons that have been previously stated here. I still think the city am article is good, particularly the point about family accounting... I fail to see the reasoning behind basing this on single income.

Good article on the issue: http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/allister-heath/child-benefit-reform-needs-rethink.

I second the Aupair World website (http://www.aupair-world.net); we've found our last 4 au pairs through there and are well on our way for the 5th!

I think the pay & the hours for your au pair/au pair plus also depend on whether you get your au pair privately or through an agency and whether your au pair is a EU national or requires a visa to enter the UK. If you get an EU national au pair directly e.g. through one of the non-agency website you have more freedom to negotiate the hours & the pay as the visa/agency restriction don't "apply". According to our au pairs, it seems that for the regular 25hrs/week the common pocket money is ?65-70/week as dulwichmum said. Here are a few links for further info if you're interested: http://www.abc-aupairs.co.uk/aupairs_pay.php http://www.aupairworld.net/index.php/visa/uk/ http://www.busybeeaupairs.com/index.asp?page=3 http://www.europa-pages.com/au_pair/terms.html

chantelle, I don't think there is a very formal process, at least wasn't previously, I applied directly to the school. Just call the office (020 7732 7107) and ask to speak to the nursery teacher, her name is Eunice Zeffertt, she's really lovely. :)