MrsP

I donated over a litre of milk when my second child was born. I also spent time on the special care baby unit and saw the nurses feeding the tiniest babies I have ever seen. Well worth the effort if you can manage it.

Thank you for your encouragement, having thought about it a bit more, I'm feeling quite excited and totally up for it - the road beckons!

Feeling very disappointed with the price of overseas family holidays I thought why not hire a motorhome and do a bit of a road trip. We have a two year and a three year old and thought perhaps head to Cornwall stopping for a few days in Dorset on the way. Has anyone had any experience of motorhomes, where can we hire one, which model would be the most suitable, what about campsites. Are we being a bit mad?

Leapers is not a playgroup. I too thought it was, but was informed by the manager at Rye Oak children's centre that it is a parenting course run by Surestart. Applications to attend to Rye Oak Children's Centre. It is a fantastic resource so do apply and make full use of it while you can!

Government policy in this area of child care is driven by the philosophy "every child matters". Surestart's guiding principles state that they provide services for everyone which are to be flexible at point of delivery. They recognise that not every family requires the same services and they are to be sensitive to this. Surestart services are also supposed to be community driven and professionally coordinated, I interpret this to mean listening to your users. There is a serious popularion boom in this area of London. As a former child protection and family lawyer I am acutely aware that all families can have issues and difficulties regardless of class. New parents in this area don't necessarily need literacy, language or skills support, but there are other often other hidden issues, neglect, depression, abuse, financial difficulties leading to family stress. I am disappointed that Surestart has failed to listen to the local community and lacks any flexibility or creativity in service provision, particularly as the change in Leapers is supported by absolutely zero investigation into the statistical make up of the people accessing and the people not accessing it.

I totally agree Cora. I was at Leapers when Surestart did an "assessment" of those who attended. The assessors questioned only two people on that particular day and did not ask for any information about socio-economic background. Being a parent is hard no matter ones' background. Leapers has been brilliant at providing support for parents but also for getting parents to support and help each other. I have written to Surestart and Alistair Bruce about my concerns but have received nothing positive in response.

Leapers at Rye Oak primary school and children's centre as of next week will no longer be an open access group. It is still being run on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and afternoons, but accessible only via a referral system. It is possible to self-refer by applying to the children's centre. Successful applicants will be able to attend a 10 week block. If you miss two sessions you will forfeit the whole 10 weeks. I have been attending Leapers on a regular basis and have benefited enormously from the support of Jean and Jas, and have made a good network of friends through the group. Despite many of us lobbying the children's centre and surestart we were unsuccessful in trying to persuade the centre to keep the group as it was. I know that many of the parents living in Se22 have not been successful in obtaining a place. I do think that SE22 is a bit of black hole for the under 5's particularly for parents who cannot afford nursery or other childcare. Does anyone else have a similar experience of local support groups, or perhaps I am missing something obvious.

Thank you all for your suggestions, have noticed that there is large spillage of petrol on road outside house, so perhaps that is the answer.... a neighbour has also been the victim of the petrol thieves.

Woke up 6am this morning to a really strong smell of petrol in the house. We live in Crebor Street and have in the past ocassionally smelt white spirit, but today this was really concerning. The smell was strongest on the ground floor, we checked everywhere and found nothing suspicious. Obviously we are very concerned, as this is definately not normal and we do not keep petrol in the house - anyone got any suggestions??

We visited the One O'Clock Club this afternoon and had a great chat with the staff about the future of the club. They are trying to raise money to rebuild the site and have already secured finance to knock down the hut and to employ an architect. They are, however, in desperate need of help from parents or anyone who wants to help, to source and secure funds for the rebuild. There is a meeting tonight in the cafe next door at 6.30 to discuss. This is very short notice and not an easy time for parents to get away so anyone interested in helping please make yourself known to the staff, they would be very grateful for some help particularly from anyone with experience in writing bids and fundraising.

I have had three very successful visits to the barbers on Lordship Lane next to SMBS - I think they are called Jazz Barbers. My son started going at 18 months and thoroughly enjoys the trip. Mr Jazz the Barber talks merrily about Mr Tumble and Thomas the Tank Engine and has been known to provide a lolly at the end of the haircut!

Not really on the ED radar, but we have recently ventured to Chinatown for lunch with our 2.5 year old and 1.5 year old. The New World China restaurant opposite the fire station was fantastic, they provided high chairs (although they were the really ancient ones with no front bar, but up against the table they were ok), fine banter with the Chinese waitresses and really tasty dim sum. Kids were very happy with dim sum as it is all very bite size and easy to pick up. Am very excited my horizons are started to reach beyond SE22!

Both my children had cranial osteopathy after very traumatic births - wonderful results, can't recommend it highly enough, we went to Marguerite Corbo at the Soup Dragon, she also works at the Farringdon Centre. It is also very good for stressed and tired mums!

My kids seem to like a veg and ham tart - v. easy, pack of puff pastry cook for 8 mins in oven, then load up with anything left over in fridge, broccoli, carrots, peas, sweetcorn steamed in microwave, bung all on top of pastry with ham and cheese, cook for another 8 mins - very happy kids, very happy mummy. Love this thread.

Can I come too. Have a 20 month old boy and 2.5 year old girl, we drive, can get anywhere for some adult conversation - summer holidays are really starting to worry me. Lets organise where and when!

I have grown up in East Dulwich and have personal experience of the lack of state secondary schools. My parents sent me to Pimlico School. Whilst I did well academically, it was probably more because of the support I was given at home, Pimlico when I attended did not do particularly well at challenging students and whilst it has the reputation of being arty and musical it was only for a select few. The most difficult aspect of attending Pimlico was the distance I had to travel everyday, sure there is the 185 bus, but I felt I spent my teenage years sitting on the bus in traffic. The journey could sometimes take an hour plus each way, this meant I usually had to leave home very early in the morning and got home often quite late, it was hard to take part in after school activities (not that there were many) because it would mean getting home 6- 7pm ish. Furthermore, because the school attracted pupils from all over London I did not have a local group of friends. In retrospect, I would not choose to send my children to a school so far away unless I was confident they would gain above and beyond the everyday difficulties.

Does anyone else feel that the current plethora of kids classes (monkey music, caterpillar music, diddi dance, sing and sign) are cashing in on parents with money to spend without providing any real value for money. I recently attended a taster music class with my two kids at dulwich park. It consisted of 45 minutes of singing to a CD and bashing a few instruments. There was no real engagement with sounds or rythmn, I least expected someone to be actually playing an instrument - I mean we can sing to a CD quite happily at home and not pay ?6 for the pleasure! I feel that I am being taken advantage of, and will be sticking to messy play at home, singing with friends and walks in the wood. Does anyone else feel disappointed, or have I missed something?