bluesuperted

I'm a dad of a young child, looking to play a bit of football on the weekends or during the week, nothing too serious, just to get a bit of fresh air and a kick-around, that doesn't take me awsy from the family for hours and hours. Does anyone know of anything informal in the area I could join in with, preferably on Peckham Rye? Alternatively, if you fancy something similar (dad or not!), PM me, I'll collect all the responses and if I can get enough people, I'll start one of my own...

My dad retrained when we were young, from engineering lecturer to book keeper - did a very short correspondence course. He now has 100 clients (mainly small businesses and limited companies) and does all their accounts (more lucrative than book keeping!) despite not being chartered or having sat any accountancy exams - he's very upfront about this and no one seems to mind as he knows his stuff. He's done really well to build his business, makes a reasonable wage, is his own boss and now fends off new business as he's too busy. An interesting and fairly inexpensive path...

I love the idea of four (currently have one). But practicalities may mean we stop at 3 or even 2. I also love the idea of a house filled with littlies, then teens, then hilarious/witty grown-ups and their respective broods! I'm one of two and adore my sister - but our parents divorced (fairly amicably) when we were 11 and 8 and I wonder if there is a deeprooted longing for a big, happy family living in one place because of that. Anyway, really interesting thread :)

NHS related courses (SLT, OT, midwifery, nursing etc) have various modest bursaries attached. Teaching did but very few subjects still offer a bursary this year and fees have gone up. Arts and business subjects/courses/retraining tend to be expensive and without financial support. It really depends on what you want to retrain in plus your expected expenses. My husband and I worked out we needed (in the year we both retrained) the equivalent of earning ?18k each - so about ?12k without worrying about tax. We saved for the shortfall between the bursaries we received and money we could earn whilst on the course. Hope this helps, it takes a fair bit of planning!

I'm so sorry too Susyp - I also don't have any advice but for what it's worth I think you are so brave and from what you've written you are absolutely doing the right thing and must keep safe from harm for both your and your little girl's sake. Please take care, seek as much help and support as you can and know that you are doing it all for your little girl and one days she will thank you. Sorry I don't have anything useful to add but couldn't read and run and wanted to add support like others on here. Hugs xx

Also v interested in this but was also a little confused by the fees/joining up/website... Would love to know more as heard it's lovely inside.

Have you considered a taxi each way instead? We just hired a car for two weeks in the US. We ordered the cheapest compact and SO glad they upgraded us to a Ford Focus. We were: two people, one one-year old, two large suitcases, one umbrella buggy, one car seat, three bags of hand luggage. It was a bit of a squash for both airport trips!

I think Saffron has mentioned the Amby one...

SW: that's great, think you would be a wonderful MW :) Pugwash: OT is another fab, broad-ranging and family friendly career, I considered it along with SLT but decided my love of communication made SLT the obvious choice. Ruth: has Mr B looked at prospects.ac.uk? They have nice, simple profiles of careers and good case studies, salary info, time needed to train etc. Here's the paediatric nursing one: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/paediatric_nurse_job_description.htm Buggie: don't know how you missed it either, need a 'tagging' system a la Facebook ;)

I'm confused as to why there's an Otta and an Otto on this thread... Optical illusion makes it look like the same poster!

By the way: tell Mr B that no-one has laughed at either of us (to our faces anyway!) - in fact on my last day in my old job, a colleague grabbed me and said 'Take me with you, how did you do it??!'. A lovely girl but sadly she's still there, in a job she hates and probably isn't suited to either.

I thought the time needed seemed daunting too Belle (for me, I decided May 2007, started course September 2008 and should have qualified last year but due to maternity qualified this July). But once you're in it, so to speak, it flies and I'm SO glad I did it. One of my best friends on my course qualified with distinction whilst looking after her two children (age 4 and 7 when she started the eldest with autism) and is now reaping the rewards with a fab job she loves. Sure she'd be happy to chat too about the balance post-kids. The other thing is, the time that lapses whilst waiting to retrain, offers a good 'breathing time' to get logistics in place AND decide for definite you are following the right path. I previously thought I would retrain as a historian and got an AHRC funded place on a masters - only to turn it down when they offered me it as I realised, quite late in the day, it wasn't for me after all! Ruth - I'm definitely in the 'go for it' camp! Husband had the most fantastic class last year and they adored him and lots of tears and amazing, personal presents and cards as they left his classroom on the last day of term. His words on his last day of term were that he never got a buzz like that from any aspect of advertising - and he did some cool campaigns, had some nice perks and won an award for an ad he wrote!

You know about me but not sure if you knew about DH too? As you know I went from graduate, fast-tracked marketing/advertising career to SLT and hubby went from advertising account management to primary school teaching. We both did 5 years in our previous careers although we both retrained pre-baby which I'm glad about now (although still think it's possible, have friends doing it post-children for both the 2 year SLT course and teaching). We totally love that we changed careers and talk about it a lot. Yes we'd live in a bigger house if we still worked in our previous roles. But we'd still be unhappy in our industry, working too hard for something that didn't suit us and we didn't believe in and we'd have to both work full-time as we'd be more likely to be mortgaged to the hilt (rather than me being able to SAH and husband getting long holidays off). Plus I love that we can leave London when we are ready which wasn't an easy option in our previous work. Don't know anyone who has retrained in paediatric nursing (Buggie might be ideal candidate for knowing some people?) but sure it's possible with forward planning and saving (we saved for 2 years which helped a lot). It might be a hard road initially but it's worth it to invest in a career that will potentially last you a long time. PS: It was a coincidence that we both wanted to retrain!

I agree that there's probably nothing to worry about at your son's age, and the variation is huge. I also think though that it's worth mentioning to your GP just as a precaution and to get it 'logged' as waiting lists for SLT are pretty long round ED. My thoughts re: ways to augment your son's language are as follows: 1. Label, label, label :) When your son points to something, brings you something or shows an interest in something with or without a vocalisation, tell him what it is in simple terms: 'it's a dog' 'that's a house' 'oh your shoes' etc. If he vocalises at all, even in babble or incorrectly, affirm what he has said by saying 'yes, it's a dog!'. This will encourage him to keep trying and communicating with you; at this age there's no need to correct speech and like previous posters have said so much is still developing that they may not be physically able to produce a more accurate representation at this point. 2. Reduce questions. Despite my training I know I am very guilty of this one, I think everyone asks too many questions of children, seems to be human nature! But as much as you can comment or label rather than ask questions the better. Asking a child a question when they are not necessarily focused on the exact thing you are might make a response really hard - for example you point to the bird and say 'what's that?' but they may be much more interested in the tree the bird is in, or a cloud or a bug (you get my gist!). This element was a big part of my training and I find it hard in a professional context let alone as a mum, but I do think it works to reduce pressure and confusion for very young children. 3. Offer lots of time/pausing/slow your own speech. Also something I find hard as a busy person and a fast talker! Often waiting that extra few seconds can be invaluable with communicating with little ones. There was another good post where someone, I've forgotten who, said about trying not to rush about so much with their toddler, this obviously isn't always possible but adding extra quiet time during the day and specifically in 'chatting' times is great. Hope some of this helps, am on hols so not checking the forum as much these days! I'd also definitely reiterate that good understanding and desire to communicate (which he obviously has due to his frustration!) is so important and his actual speech and language is probably just around the corner.

Anna poor, poor you!! Sending you big hugs and get well soon, acidophilus tablets are for sale in health matters if you don't have any. Get well soon again and love to you all xxxx

Sooo happy for you all Ruth and so glad Alexa has arrived safe and sound. Hugs from the States! xxx

Interesting points mrs f! Still need to find the article to which I was referring but should really be packing for my imminent flight! Also it's blue superted - lots of people read it as bluespurted, think it's a lexical optical illusion ;)

Pickle and Molly - how did you both find out about your LOs feet related issues? Was it the shoe shops that alerted you? X

I always let him go barefoot in the park on grass and would consider it on nice playground areas too! Watching his feet I can really see the benefit of as much barefoot time as possible - little toes that are really spread and agile compared to adults feet, helping his balance and grippy soles keeping him steady like you say. And yet still much softer feet than me, how unfair!!

Hi Sophie, am grappling with this baby issue myself! Especially as E is now walking really enthusiastically at 11 months - so even softer squidgier feet to consider (opposite problem, so squashy and wide at this end!!). I did a bit of research and found some useful advice on Green Parent forums as I'd also read the barefoot as much as possible information. Anyway, in a nutshell, I found this great American site that does structured but very soft and flexible shoes and you can ship them over here (although I'm shipping them to my States holiday rental address!): http://www.softstarshoes.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=51 What really struck me about something I read (will try and dig it out) was that babies' feet are not miniature versions of adult feet - they are still growing and changing and some commercial shoes ARE just scaled down adult items and as such squash little feet into shapes they don't want to be in... The company above has a really good information bit too and they are really helpful with recommending how to measure correctly and which type to go for. I'm planning on getting the soft Villey leather mocassins as per their advice, and keeping baby in bare feet as much as possible (including lots of socks off time at home!). Hope this helps! xx

Yes don't use Napisan on cloth nappies as it can rot the plastic on nappy covers. If you're doing cloth I recommend the kinder Bambino Mio Miofresh. Again you hardly need any. Before I switched to cloth I didn't use anything and found line drying gets rid of all poo stains as if by magic!!

Dressed my two day old son in a handmedown pink babygro after one too many spit ups. Was deliriously convinced he was a girl for a few minutes. Weird.

We have bought the Obaby Escape (?34 including postage) for our upcoming trip to the states. We are a slinging family so have only tested it out on two trips and it was fine and it's very lightweight. For ?30ish you can't go wrong and the reviews on Amazon were very favourable. Not sure about the upper weight limit but have seen them around with large children in (age 3+) and my son is 11kg and has loads of room. Bless his heart he is so unused to buggy travel that he looks like he's about to go on a rollercoaster when I put him in it - such excitement, poor deprived slingbaby!!

We liked it for a few minutes use here and there (main use was sticking in it whilst we had baths!) but our boy was very mobile very quickly so didn't use it at all after 5/6 months. Thank goodness we bought it for ?25 via the forum! Wouldn't recommend buying it new as they last and wash well and ours will be in perfect order for another baby.

Loved this post F and some of the comments are hilarious. Agree any doll, cuddly, truck can just as easily be bf'ed - cuppatea, I'd love to see my little boy doing that in a few months time, we shall see!!