Otta

We'll also be facing this soon, age gap a bit bigger though, eldest will be 2.25.

This would be especially bad for people in Sydenham / Forest Hill, as quite a few groups seem to be closing due to the cuts.

Yesterday, I was getting impatient about something, and said "for f**ks...", only for my nearly 2 year old daughter to say "sake". Luckily her mother wasn't around at the time... Must try harder!

I always thought this summed up te whole easter thing quite well.

What the hell is the dummy fairy!?!?!?

I do't ever remember believing in the easter bunny. Think it's a more recent import. Agree that the tooth fairy is cool though. I was working with a 15 year old lad recently, and he was talking about what Santa was going to bring him. He has a twin brother with a severe learning disability, so I guess the parents have kept it up for him, and so this guy also believes it by default. I was trying to explain to him that he might want to keep quiet about Santa, when chatting to people at school!

I think you should ask. I often offer my seat, but at other times, I've got headphones on, and my head in a book, and am oblivious to anything going on around me. If I got a tap on the shoulder, and looked up to see a pregnant lady, I'd happily move.

>:D

I do agree that all schools should have to have the same admissions policies, at least for a set number of places, say 80%, then they could take their pick for 20% of their intake. I think too much power has been handed to schools, so that they are now run as businesses, and head teachers, are basically managers. I think some aspects of education need to be run more centrally, in order to make a fairer system, and start schools on a more level playing field. This in itself would stop a lot of the class nonsense and snobbery that is attached to school applications.

A very self satisfied couple that we know once told Mrs Otta that women who had epidurals and C sections, were "lazy mothers". They left pretty quickly after that.

Wow!!! You should be a Tory MP. All the wealthiest people chosing the best schools. Do you honstly believe that that is what this country needs? Hate to break it to you, but I suspect you'd have to add a hell of a lot more than ?1k to the portion of your tax that is spent on education, in order to afford DC, which costs about ?5k a term! Do you also believe that there should be no NHS, and that instead of paying tax, we should just buy in our health care?

I know a guy who home educated his daughter. My first question was, didn't she miss out on the social side? He said she had loads of mates, because there are groups who home educate, it's not all done in your house. His daughter was getting ready for a levels at 15. It's something that I'll certainly consider in the future.

Would it cd worth emailing sainsbury's head office. You never know...

Hello, our 2 year old daughter will soon be starting nursury 3 mornings a week, at a cost of about ?100 a week. Now, we get child benefit, and about ?40 a month (Woohoo) tax credit. Our joint income is something like ?54k a year. It just seems that we keep hearing about people getting loads of help, and either they're playing the system somehow, or we're not getting everything we're entitled to. Mrs otta can get some vouchers through her work, where basically you don't pay tax or ni on that part of your salery, but that is not going to be much of a saving. does anyone know about these things, who could offer some advise? also, does tax credit go up when you have a second child?

Just bought cordless dycem, and it's great! Got it for 150 quid on amazon.

For us, it was lots of babygrows, lots and lots of muslins, black and white shape books and mobil (this was the absolute best thing). Good sling.

I'm sorry, but it's hard to take a post seriously, when it calls a 3 year old a thug.

All good thankfully, and we did find out, and are pleased with our news :-)

Word! A couple of monhs back, I was outside my cousins flat in ED, and a couple walked past with their youngish son (approx 7), and woman said to him "God you look such a chav in those trainers". I thought to myself, 1) You probably bought them for him, and 2) how can you say that to your kid?

Never did for baby number 1, and was a lovely surprise when baby girl came along. Have 20 week scan tomorrow, and think we are going to find out... Mainly bacause, if it's going to be a boy, we want to get our heads around ir. Not that it would be bad news, just fear of the unknown. Did anyone else decide to find out on the second one?

Not swearing, but made me laugh. Yesterday, I picked up my daughter (nearly 2), and she was kicking her legs, and caught me right where it hurts. My wife saw the look on my face, and asked if I was okay. I replied that the little one had kicked me in the balls. Little one then started shouting "KICK IN BALLS!". :-$