plimsoul

lordy lord who was it who said it's your parents that f**k you up. i don't know why i have woody allen in mind but probably not. my neighbours and i laugh when we see each other and it was a bad morning/day/bedtime in either house hold. i repeat there is no such thing as the perfect child, parent or adult. we waste too much time feeling guilty when we know full well that they have the best years ahead of them (unless we're all drowning under the polar ice caps meltdown) at college, meeting their future lovers, learning all about the big wide world... enjoy that glass of wine and think to yourself that you're bringing up a lady who won't let anyone push her around!

what is the incubation period. may parents in law took my kids just under 2 weeks ago... the poor parents of the kids in intensive care, my heart goes out to them.

you are not human if you haven't felt this guilt. i used to shout at them when they couldn't even understand as i was just sooooo tired. now, when one has managed to keep the tantrum going for over 1 hour i sometimes snap. it's part of parenthood. as my mum put it to me once: parents are there to teach children that no one is perfect!

i was induced and that first pessary was so painful that i too was thinking 'what the blazes is the rest going to be like'. felt like hot acid between my legs. i was at st thomas' and they were great, but like all things to do with children and child birth one experience is totally unique to the next. good luck with everything, a xx

i am pleased to read that not all people are as stupid as the london press would have us believe and actually understand why bendy buses are actually good at rush hour ... not to mention extra buggy space, wheel chair use, one floor so more seats for priority type people... the farce that is boris' mayorship is typified by this totally ridiculous policy. pay to replace perfectly good stock for smaller one deckers, not even double deckers. if people feel the need to ride a route master they still run in town on tourist routes. interestingly there was a statistic i read somewhere (and i can't back it up) that said that people jumping off the platform of routemasters caused more accidents for cyclists than any other bus. i'm sure i'll be lambasted for defending the bendy bus but there you go...

it's back this weekend with a 2 episode specially usual let's blow it all up fest that denotes the start of a new series. i love it, but holby vs. casualty. who wins?

is it just this nation? surely that applies to most of the west and a bit beyond?

i just did it myself, you save a load of money and the HMRC are really helpful. i just refused to pay their charges... so not much help but it does save a lot of money.

hi to answer the original question i would put in half a cup (one of those plastic ikea ones) and never knew if it was right or wrong but they weren't bothered by that. but they were bothered with the WHOLE thing: taking clothes off, seeing the pox, getting in the bath and the calamine lotion. it's hell, don't let anyone tell you any different. mine had it bad but it does last as long as they say, after 4 days of the pox appearing they'll start to burst and about 5 days later they're up and playing again. piriton was great but we only used the aqueous cream with calamine where their skin was dry before teh pox already. again, good luck!

do any of the local primaries have attached nurseries that you could apply to for your free half day allowance? we send our 2 to dog kennel hill and every day they're there for 2 1/2 hours and love it. but, you suffer the school holiday time table. i'm sure that you'd already thought of it but it's certainly worth applying for.

not sure if you're aware of this but i think an AP on a development for C4 already posted about this a few months ago...

usually they are very helpful but often they don't actually find. i am livid with this as they now tell me to pull one twin out of the back yet don't provide an alternative trolley. my kids are that badly behaved it's just a lot faster to have both in the trolley so i can quickly dash around. if anyone wants to bring it up, i have in person at the store, i am more than happy to sign something but i simply do not have the time to do more than that....

functionalism will dictate what happens on the different levels. there are issues today that need to be addressed on a global scale: global environment, terrorism blah blah. subsidiarity, the principle by where the most effective strata of government should deal with the problem also explains my thought. the un and eu were mainly inspired by the horror people felt after the 2 great wars, particularly the eu. from your opening post i am assuming (maybe incorrectly) that you are against such intercontinental institutions, whether a global 'leviathan' would ever work i don't think you can really ever say. does a local police force enjoy the love of the whole community and never accused of bias? no. so on an international scale the ask is even bigger. i hope that there is a good future for international law, that the hague court will actually take to task people who break it, including tony and george for the war. but, instinct would tell me that man kind is far too navel gazing to realise how key tackling certain things globally are to our future today. like the ice caps melting etc... i (pretty naively many would say) still believe in the social contract as prescribed by rousseau and think that politics is no longer a national issue and therefore this principle i would apply internationally. we are global citizens, not just UK. whether the institutions that represent that international cooperation are 'good' and 'right' or respected is another issue. but then, who respects their own parliament? apart from the swiss i know of no one who actually feels like they participate in their democracy....

the main complaint i have about london bridge right now is the minimal amount of ticket offices and machines. i know that a lot has been changed around for the shard but for the volume of people passing through it's ridiculous...or so people tell me who are coming to visit us south east londoners...

i remember heading down to unity in fulham in the 90's. graffiti has been part of my life since the 80's and all the above definitely prove that it is an art form. however, i think the mistake (sorry tony.london.suburbs) is asking the broad question (i made the same mistake with the thinkers thread). basically, tagging is like animals on heat leaving a mark. but graffiti is not tagging, i think this has to understood before discussing... a debate that has raged for years in the graff community questions whether once artists commit to canvass can they still be considered graffiti art? some famous faves of mine (sadly i have no pics on this computer) include delta and she 1. in my mind they represent both art and graffiti.

telly is just great and they learn loads on cbeebies. of course it's best for them not to be sat in front of it for hours on end but everything within reason: isn't that the moto for kids? i remember using teletubbies to calm them down. other families refused their children telly in the early years and i'd say that they now watch it as much as anyone else. there's enough guilt surrounding motherhood as it is, let alone something that gives you some peace!

maybe i should have asked about feminism on this thread rather than starting the new one. i find it interesting that we are in general (women and mothers this is) left responsible for the household, the family decisions (in the main) and finally have to work too. i thought the idea of feminism was to allow women to chose, whereas i'm not convinced that choice exists at all. i thought that maybe with the recession more opportunities to job share and work part time would present themselves and in turn help fight against the work place which is rarely helpful towards motherhood. but so far i have read or heard nothing that makes me believe that as women we are still expected to fit in around everyone else.

wow, now i love bags but most of this stuff looks like dolcis circa 1980. i now realise that high street designer i am not...

mirrors of some sort on corners so you can see what's coming down the road, otherwise half those corners are blind spots. you get them on the continent everywhere.

dummies are the best, dont' be so hard on yourself. it's far worse weaning a kid off their thumb and if it means you can relax more well that should be the best reason! i had them with the twins who were impossible, always screaming when other babies were happily burping away in silence. i too left places, often in tears, wondering if i would ever have the well behaved ones. guess what? they are now the children who actually sit properly in places and play well. it does happen and often it's swings and roundabouts when one year your friends seem to be coasting and then it's all change and you're the one sipping the coffee at the playground.

what i find interesting is if they want it cleaner well then clean it?? and the same goes with cooking. the amount of men who 'enjoy' cooking but get hacked off because their partners don't enjoy it. well, why don't you cook every day mr if you enjoy it? because i've never really heard of a woman getting moody because everyone else refuses to cook in the house... i cam ask mr plimsoul to hang the laundry, or hoover etc... but is always i who initiate. at first he totally refused to get a dishwasher, but i ignored him. then he refused to get a cleaning lady but again i ignored him and we're all pleased that i went ahead without him!

did you find, i certainly have, that since having kids i have become rather feminist...i once had this crazy idea that things were now equal but somehow i'm still organising laundry, meals, child care, being a wife, cleaning the house oh and my job.

my fear is that no one is talking about how to fix this mess that we're in. where is our keynes? where is our new way forward?

sorry i forgo to add that i'm not on facebook or myspace, is there any other way of communicating?

hi i'd love to join. i've just gone back to 4 days a week producing/researching some short films and a massive installation...along with managing the artists studio that all this is being made by. i feel completely drained and slightly nuts as i have twins just about to turn 4 with massive child care issues to deal with over the summer (let alone trying to work to creative hours). so this sounds very interesting and please keep me in the loop. i'm aslo looking for good producers/editors/researchers etc... when work comes up. look forward to hearing more...