Sanne Panne

There was definitely a lot of action around Village Way 30 minutes ago.

I have one in Y2 and one in reception and they both absolutely love it and so do I. Lovely staff, excellent class management, high teaching standards. This is always very subjective though so I can only speak for myself.

My daughter does Taekwon-do at Best Leg which teaches at the Jags Sports Club on Saturday afternoon. I really like the teacher. Let me know if you want more detail and/or can't find them online.

We stayed in the Perigord Vert part of the Dordogne (North) and it wasn't too touristy at all. Beautiful and quiet, and at driving distance from the charming and more touristy villages. Rented a house via owners direct.

I am always asked for the birth certificate when entering or exiting the "other" country. Wondering if UK border control has the parents' names logged when they scan the childrens' passports because they never ask me if they're mine when I leave the UK with them... (my passport is EU but non-UK and my kids' passports are British AND they have different surnames).

Talk to a legal advisor before you change locks, however much my instinct would tell me to do such a thing. I know in the US things like this can work against you as you're supposedly not trying to resolve the conflict rationally, and technically denying your partner access to the child before any decisions have been made.

Are you sure your child is going to blue class, not red? In any case it's a great nursery with minimal staff turnover, the only leavers seem those who don't return from maternity leave as it probably doesn't pay enough. Having had one child there a few years ago and another one there now I've dealt with the same core staff (and a couple of new joiners to allow for expansion ) for nearly 4 years and many of them had been there for a long time when my eldest first joined . It's very personable, high quality care.

Taekwon-do at Jags Sports Club is very very nice. Great teacher.

How about everyone pm's me their email addresses and I'll set a group conversation up.

Hi, I'm Dutch (left NL only 10 years ago) and am moving back to ED from Herne Hill next month. Have two girls 3 and 5. We have a Dutch nanny so the kids are fairly fluent although they definitely prefer English. Would love to meet up with you all! I do work full time but have the occasional half-day off - I'm sure we can organise something.

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Experience with introducing the "switch" when you've already allowed them to become picky: after initially going down the pasta-pesto and fish fingers route and scratching my head over why I did eat salad and soup at 4 without being forced by my parents nor left with eating disorders as a teen or adult I bluntly switched to the "this is dinner" attitude (not a confrontational "eat this or you'll get nothing" but an informative "this is dinner, it's delicious") 18 months ago when the smallest was 1.5 and the eldest 3.5, and it worked pretty much immediately and they really enjoy mealtime.

Another topic. The anglophone (well, UK/US for sure, not sure about elsewhere) world's obsession with parenting methods. Do we really need books? Have all these theories taken our instincts and/or confidence away? If we think they "get" it in Spain and Italy one of the big differences is that they don't obsess over it so much. Stronger cultural consistence and availability of family maybe. But here it's really gone too far and I don't see the kids (or parents) benefit at all. Thoughts?

Thanks for all the advice. I organised a few interviews through Findababysitter. And good idea about the local schools and unis/colleges... I think a teen may be a bit young to supervise two small kids the youngest of which is 2.5 during the walk back from school but then again some 17 year olds are a lot more mature than some 23 year olds. Still I think two kids aged 4.5 and 2.5 is quite a responsibility. Thanks again, feeling a bit more optimistic now!

I have indeed been thinking about organising something with other parents. It would be great in a way but it's quite something to fully rely on someone with one or two kids of their own twice a week every single week of term time and not be able to do anything in return (childcare-wise). I'd want to pay but have no idea how I would even bring that up. Hm I may actually email the parents list... less awkward than waving a tenner in the face of someone who doesn't want my kids or my money ;) The schools are pretty close to each other, a 5 minute walk apart with ample room between the pick-up times so there's no stress. It just makes it hard for a childminder with multiple kids I guess. Thanks for the feedback!