MN Little Italy 17

[Rosa]

Starting schools, North vs South and books ...ci siamo !

[Rosa]

La La La ...picks nose,taps feet anyone joining me ???

[Bucharest]

My last post nearly got eaten in the move!

[gio71]

Ciao!I liked that No Going Back family as well, they seem to have done really well as well years down the line which is nice to see. The Mother is a mumsnetter. I remember seeing her on a thread about the programme.

[Rosa]

They have 4 boys ...Admiration . I was thinking about PLaymobil as well for dd at Christmas she wil be 3.9yrs right age ??? - Lego has been shelved for a bit due to minirosa eating everything - she even got a half circle / dome of ELC ice cream in her mouth.. I also have lots of Boots points and they have the 3x2 on at the mo ....

[minervaitalica]

Wanna see no going back too!!! How do I do it (is it on Sky?

Too young for Playmobil here, but am considering some Duplo or other construction thing for DD at Xmas (not that she lacks in the toy dept).

Franca, we have not sold our flat in London either... An we go back to London 3-4 times a year. I do not think I will ever leave, really.

[francagoestohollywood]

Eccomi!!!
Yes, lol lol at rosa dodging her mil

The casa del sole family are lovely, lovely boys

Minerva, I can totally recommend Duplo... my dc are "old" but still enjoy playing with it. Duplo is def a must have, imho.

I think scary teenagers are all over the world, perhaps in England the phenomenon is more widespread, due to different sociological reasons that Buch describes, plus the fact that the 1970s economic crisis has left areas of incredible poverty, etc etc. But I wouldn't dare facing teenagers from Scampia or Bresso either .
As for "normal" teenagers, I think it is impossible to generalize and decide who's the rudest .

We live very near a private, "posh" university and I cannot stand the students for instance. They pay £££ a year and still throw everything on the pavement!

[francagoestohollywood]

gosh I sound like a proper moralista, don't I?

It's already time for me to get the dc and take them to giardinetti.

ciao!

[francagoestohollywood]

ah, and at all those points on Boots. I miss boots!

[Rosa]

MI its 426 on Sky they are doing re runs at the mo.
Am dreading the phone call later as dd has a tiny bit of febbre this pm she hasn't slept much either.
AFter page 30 of toys on Boots I had to stop I was on overload.....

[DamonBradleylovesPippi]

Camo I have a cowboy fort with lots of knights and bits that I got last year for dd1 for xmas in a 'I-used-to-have-that' moment forgetting that the dds have not got brothers so not luckely to play with it. You are welcome to it as it is sitting in the loft and will do so forever. let me see if I can find a pics of a similar thing.

[DamonBradleylovesPippi]

oh and buch I'd be interested to read it too.

[DamonBradleylovesPippi]

I don't know where's worst to be honest as I cannot compare like for like. The city I come from is a very different place from a metropolis like London and even within that city I wasn't in much contact with the less privileged ifswim although over there the boundaries were(are?) much more fluid I found and there wasn't such an 'us and them' situation which is too often the case here.

[minervaitalica]

Yes Pippi, see the point re: class divide. I suppose in Italy we all go to the same liceo scientifico or whatever at the end (the son of the lawyer and of he school's janitor) - that does make a difference I think!

[Camomilla]

just got back from school and docs (DD's 12 month injection). spoke to the teacher, she knew who I was talking about without having to say much, she was glad I spoke to her, especially when I told her that apparently ds is "boring because he just watches and doesn't do any fighting", so she'll keep an eye on him and them.felt good as she seems to be a no-nonsense teacher (they do have strict policies on bullying and bad behaviour, they've just introduced a new reward/punishment system thing which sounds very good) and she said that there are a few who are finding it difficult to adjust to the new reward system (she sounded very sarcastic), so we'll wait and see.

pippi, if it's gathering dust, yes please, thank you!

yes, I think there's more "mixing" in italy, that makes a big differece.

[Penthesileia]

ciao - marking spot in new thread - haven't read end of last one - back later - poor dd has a temperature

[DamonBradleylovesPippi]

oh no penthe. BTW how is it going with nanny? id dh still suspicious?

Camo it is yours then. Only problem is it is a bit bulky to say the least. You wont be able to carry it if you've got the kids. Want me to ask how much it is to post? Or shall I come down your way by car one day and deliver [babbo natale emoticon ]?

[francagoestohollywood]

Buch, to keep it short... send us your blog address ... we are all too curious!

Penthe oh no! Lots of bugs around already. uffa.

I'm not sure re class division in Italy. I think there was less class division in the 70s when I was growing up. The children at primary and medie came from all sorts of background. Less so when I was at Liceo Classico. But still being a state school there was probably more "variety" than a posh private school in the UK.
I think class division is much more evident nowadays in italy, more than the past. For various reasons: increasing house prices that have driven less affluent people out of the city centre and created big quartieri dormitorio in the outskirts. Less interest in education. Until 20 yrs ago people seriously believed that a good education for your children was a must... it is less so nowadays... The failure of vocational schools. Boh, I'm rambling!

[DamonBradleylovesPippi]

I think you ahve a good point there franca a point I am quite ignorant about as have not been in italy for years and therefore not familiar at all with the state of education and state of much else in general. When I think of italy I think of my days which are also undoubtedly viewed through rose tinted glasses. But when I say less class divide I do not mean that you were not aware of the 'poor' in your class or you would not judge someone by where they lived or whether they had a monclair [vomit emoticon at the memory of those paninaro days, not mine I hasten to add] or not. I mean that you would all go to the same schools, to a certain extent and more likely mix. Here with the private educ business it is unheard of to send your children to state school if your earning can afford private. So much so that makes the news when it does, in the case of Macca for example. Again I am comparing today's london with provincial city 30 years ago, not quite fair.

Now I am rambling and I will stop and have a bite to it.

ciao.

[francagoestohollywood]

Totally agree pippi. I'll write a longer post in a sec, have to get the children to bed.

[McCloudsextoy]

Social divide is deffo getting bigger in Italy, a whole new underclass is developing I find, at least in the south.

In the 70s people mixed more, there was more respect, traditional values were important, people had a sense of self, education was of paramount importance even amongst the non educated exactly because they were not educated.

Now the things that made the south, the cordiality, the nice freshly cooked food, the inviting your neighbour round even if she was the portiera, the stopping to chat in the street amongst women of different classes, have been replaced by anger at doing crap jobs, women exausted at doing everything at home and outside, men angry because their role is not clear, envy of people who have more, food has become crap and old recipes are being lost with cheap merendine (have you seen how many obese kids in the south), suspiciousness of neighbours, people living like machines, running from home to telly infront of Berlusca channel, children left in schools till late and spending holidays in camps, we had 3 months of carefree play and lolling around....Bah! My beautiful south.

Can anyone explain what has created the British underclass? Is is a sort of working class that has gone bad, lost its identity becasue certain jobs have disappeared, etc? I would like to know.

Cannot wait to read those books Franca mentioned a while ago to understand better Italy. I find it soooo hard to read the Italian news without being able to do anything to change the situation.

[McCloudsextoy]

But who is Macca??

[francagoestohollywood]

I'm back. Yes, Pippi I agree with you. There was def less class division when we were growing up, as most people chose the local school closer to home (primary and middle schools were very socially varied, less so were the superiori, at least here in Milan). Closeness it still my main criteria when choosing anything !

In the 1970/early 80s in Milan even state school in more central/posher areas were a good mix of different backgrounds.

Nowadays it is less so ime. First of all because it appears to be a higher rate of people who choose private education (still a minority if compared with the uk). Secondly because schools in posher areas are less mixed (as less affluent people have moved from these areas). When I was at university I did a bit of volunteering, helping primary school children doing their homeworks. The children came from a quartiere di case popolari, it was the mid 90s, the number of foreigners was increasing. In that situation, Italian parents had started to move their children from local school as they were worried by the number of non italian children ...

Sorry I rambled again.

[francagoestohollywood]

Macca is Paul mc cartney, I think. Did he choose state school for his dd? Grande!

[McCloudsextoy]

Lol i thought Macca was a mumsnetter...Did he send his recent daughter with his ex wife to a state school? But surely they will live in a really posh area so the school will be like a private school?

[francagoestohollywood]

he probably chose state school just to spite his ex wife