December 2007 - Not Quite Two, Already Terrible ;)

[claraquack]

Just checking that this worked....

[scaryclaireyboo]

Hello

[BouncingTurtle]

Just marking my place...

[BouncingTurtle]

LOL at the thread title! Very appropriate!

[claraquack]

Glad you found your way here. Clairey, sounds like you had an excellent holiday but total at you getting through 8 books! Unless of course you are talking about the Grufffalo, the Hungry Caterpillar, That's Not My Fairy etc etc etc!

SQ - Cinderella hmmm. I have read a few of the old-fashioned fairy stories to my dd1 recently (Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) and do wonder what sort of messages they give out, especially the "happy ever after" bit. Or am I reading too much into it?

[Arcadie]

Hi chaps. Just checking in. Like the thread title.

[buzzybee]

clairey and Arcadie LOL too!
My DD1 (age 7.5) has been learning Japanese at school. Told me today that she approached a "Japanese" man in cafe and tried out a few words on him. Then told me he didn't seem to understand her. I asked her how she knew he was Japanese and she said "he had a brown face"!!

Thanks for starting the new thread clara.

DD2 just starting to string a few words together which is nice - "mummy car go" for example. Her pronunciation is still appalling but at least she's starting to get the gist of things.

[BouncingTurtle]

I'm feeling very down atm. My work has changed drastically and it is not working out very well. I don't have as much work, to do so am struggling to log enough paid hours. And I am encountering a complete lack of communication and even hostility from some of the other people I work with I am just absolutely sick of it, but I can't afford to quit. We can't afford DH to be the sole breadwinner unless he finds another job on a bigger salary (his current company are massively underpaying him), but I don't even know where to start looking for another job. I just don't know what I can do part time that only requires the barest minimum childcare. Lab jobs are all full time, and the sort I used to do has unsociable hours
Just fell utterly useless and crap at the moment.

[becklespeckle]

Hi all (and Hi new thread - have I really been away that long this time? )

Clairey for your comment on Evie's clothes, I have really struggled with nice dresses this season as most of what is about seems to be skinny jeans or leopard print or cutesy bunnies. (BTW, where did you get some nice pinafores from?...just out of interest you understand...). Cazzy's girls have some lovely clothes too. We do have a Clarks outlet about 20 mins away but they never seem to have a great choice, particularly for DD. Plus the staff don't seem to care too much when they measure and always do it incorrectly. Your DCs all seem to have tiny feet compared to DD, hers are a 7!

I love the funny things they are all starting to come out with too, "Pub, nice" is great but I love "Please may I have gin" . You can really tell that DD has older brothers, yesterday she came storming into the kitchen shouting "Mm tellin Mum!" at them (followed by her telling me that one of them had taken her toy). I think the prize for most embarrasing must go to Arcadie's DS though! "Go go go" is cute too SQ, BT and Skid, DD's variation on that is "deddy... deddy... go!" or "two..three...two...three...go!"

BT, glad you had a nice time away in Spain but sorry to hear your job has been such a pain. It's hard to find something that fits in around the LO's isn't it? Not ideal I know but are there any supermarkets locally you could do evenings at?

Suey for your scan, glad it's all as it should be!

Skid, have the ILs departed yet? They sound a total nightmare to have about!

Insy, hiya! Sorry to hear you are not getting much sleep, how is everything else going?

Dundee, DD is just in the process of getting the 2nd set of molars, mostly through now thankfully! Next lot after this are at about 6 I think.

SQ, I'm sure I used a travel cot for the DSs up until they were around 3, they could climb out but still fitted in it! They were big boys too.

Nothing exciting really happening in my life at the moment but that is just how I like it TBH .

[becklespeckle]

BTW BT, you are neither useless or crap. It is tough being a mother, particularly if you have to work too. Your work situation sounds like it is out of your hands, its hard when a job changes and the people you are working with sound like they are making it worse for you. Don't let it get you down, you are a fab mum and a lovely person too x

[spiralqueen]

BT Sorry you're so down especially as you were looking forward to the new job when you got it It must be so frustrating and an unpleasant people is all you need.

Clara I know exactly where you're coming from. In Tesco at the weekend the store was full of Disney princess outfits so there's very little chance of escape. I do wonder about the messages (especially in Cinderella where the female mice tell the male mice to leave the sewing to the women) but there's not exactly a wealth of alternatives to it as far as I can see. Although I think teaching kids that fame = happiness is worse.

[becklespeckle]

Its funny SQ, I love Cinderella and all the other 'Happily Ever After' fairytales, I always have, but as a child I never thought it was real life or paid any attention to some of the older-fashioned messages in them. At least the stories allow the children some innocence before they get to the Hannah Montanah/HSM fame=happyness age!

[suey2]

hello, just marking my place!

[claraquack]

BT - you do sound very down, I wish I had some easy answers but I know from experience that trying to find some part-time work and fit it around childcare is difficult. Have you ever thought about training with the NCT ro be an antenatal or postnatal trainer? The information is on their website. Probably a totally useless idea as I guess what you need is something that pays immediately but I have a feeling it is something you would be good at. I really wanted to do the postnatal training but couldn't get on a course in time, it is still something I would like to do when I go back.
In the meantime, takes lots of pics of your ds/dh etc doing funny things and sell them to crappy women's magazines! I picked up a whole load of them (Take a Break etc) at a hotel last week left, I assume, by British tourists and was amazed how much money they pay for some pictures!

Beckle/SQ - you are probably right about the fairy tales just being nice stories at the moment. I did worry a bit about the Little Mermaid story though, where she is waiting to die at the end (this is a version we bought in Pakistan, I think they have happy endings in the ones you can get in the uk!). Dd1 has just started asking me what "die" and "dead" is and at the moment all I can think of is to tell her it's what happens to the ants when we squash them!

[BouncingTurtle]

I would seriously consider a supermarket evening job, but DH often doesn't get home until 6.30 - 7pm, and sometimes even later than that! And he is always out on a Monday evening. But I might seriously consider it.
The thing that makes it even more difficult is that I cannot commit to a job where I have to work weekends, because we have no family or friends locally, we tend to go visiting at the weekend or we have dss with us so DH wants to do stuff with him! I would be happy doing a little Saturday job, but it's just committing to it!

[DrSkidaddle]

well done clara for starting the thread - think I was supposed to do it, was I? sorry!

BT - sorry to hear about work but lots of good suggestions about possible stop gaps/alternatives. Proof-reading is another one that you can do at any time so fits well round looking after DS but it is soooooo boring. Hope something comes up.

beckle - yes ILs long gone - all seems like a (bad) distant memory now
I can just imagine what Evie is like with two big brothers to teach her all sorts of terrible tricks!

clara - totally agree with your re the whole princess/happy ever after thing. Still can't believe how obsessed with princesses my DD is as I was such a tomboy and now am a proper old fashioned feminist! What always gets me is how the most important characteristic of any heroine is her beauty and I'm sure it is rubbing off on DD who loves looking at glossy magazines and pics of waif-like models plastered in make-up. Maybe she'll come to Germaine Greer a little later in life

Holiday sounds fantastic clairey - did you invite your mum along SO THAT YOU COULD read 8 books?

[claraquack]

Skid - my dd is obsessed with pirates, baddies, superheros, what happens inside her body, where poo goes when you flush the toilet, football, riding her bike...basically she is a boy! And it's quite funny as she is quite a dainty little blond thing. But I don't know why she is like this, she just is, nothing I have done. She plays with boys and girls although I have noticed as she gets older she is slightly more inclined to play with the girls. Meanwhile her sister, who looks like a baby elephant, loves dressing up as a fairy

Please tell me about proof reading. Is it something you can qualify to do online? I am actually seriously considering writing a novel but don't really know where to start (I have a plot idea and some good characters), but I know that's never going to be a money-earner. They just say there's a book in all of us and as I have the time now I thought why not?

[BouncingTurtle]

Yes I looked at proof reading, I think you need to get certified first though.
I am going to look at some more call centre at home opps, there are some out there, a lot of them are outbound calls though which I am not keen on doing.

Someone asked me about being a childminder - but I think you really do need to want to do that sort of job, I have enough trouble trying to keep DS entertained!! Plus I am a fairly crappy housekeeper and cook lol.

[scaryclaireyboo]

Sounds tough BT, hope you sort something out soon.

Skid yes having my mum (and sister!) there was great for letting me just sit and read while they ran after dc. I only read holiday type light reads though, nothing heavy or intelligent that required thinking about!

Clara please do write a novel, there aren't enough books in the world for me

Beckle I got one dress in m&s and one in mothercare. I did have to search though, the racks seemed to be filled with mini whores clothes teenager outfits not anything I would say was suitable for a toddler.

[DrSkidaddle]

just looked at your holiday snaps clairey - your DC are sooo gorgeous!

clara - that is so funny about your DDs - do you think you treated them any differently or that they are just the way they are?

Agree with clairey that you should definitely write a book - what an utterly fantastic way to spend your time while you are in St. Lucia, especially as you have the characters and plot all worked out. Re proofreading, I just did some academic stuff so always friends of friends within the university I was at - fraid I don't know how you get into it officially. I do know you can get at least £500 for a PhD thesis though!

BT - childminding sounds like a great idea and might actually make entertaining DS easier as he will always have a playmate. I know what you mean about needing to really want to do it though - I know I couldn't. Re housekeeping, couldn't you just keep them out all day thereby sidestepping the whole tidying the house issue?!

[spiralqueen]

BT know where you're coming from with the problem about work and going away at weekends. DH has the same problem. It's not easy and around here they are having huge numbers of applicants for things like supermarket work.

My parents are going to get DD Jungle Book on DVD for her birthday so we might have a small respite from princesses

She's gone off to nursery dressed as a pumpkin today with DH carrying the pumpkin lantern the two of them made yesterday afternoon.

Clara I'm sure you'd be able to sell us all a copy of your book - perhaps you could post snippets to keep us going? Wasn't that how Charles Dickens used to do it?

OMG we got our first "why?" last night. Told DD she had to eat her dinner and she just looked at me and said the W word. We had no idea she even knew the word. I guess it's all downhill from here.

[claraquack]

SQ - your dd really IS advanced, usually WHY'S don't start for another year or too! We didn't get too many plain and simple why's with dd1, but lots and lots and lots of questions I couldn't answer (like how do traffic lights work).

I was thinking of making some of you lot characters in my book what do you think? Although it won't be about mums or babies, so you will only be minor background characters. The main character will be childless and get really bored by all her colleagues/wives of colleagues talking about their babies and children all the time!

[dundeemarmalade]

bt have you thought about buying a small child-friendly franchise? i was really tempted to buy out our old signing teacher, but didn't have time to commit to do it. there seem to be loads of that kind of thing around at the moment, but i guess you do need to be able to stump up for the initial fees etc.

[BouncingTurtle]

Yes the fees put me off when I looked into something similar, DM - was looking at a music class, plus there was a week's training at other end of the country to consider!

Anyway, news on the job front - for DH at least! He is a National Account Manager for company X, managing the Y account, and a recruitment agency (who got his name from his former boss, who they found a job for after she quit company X as they arsed her about when she tried to return from ML), have been in touch with him to say there is a job going at company Z, for a National Account Manager managing... the Y account , will be working with the same company (a national supermarket chain) just selling them a different product from a different company! Recruitment guy says DH is a shoe-in for the job!! It will be more money that DH is on now (as he is on crap money at X). But the job is in Sheffield, so we would definitely have to move, as it would be a nearly 2 hour commute otherwise! DH already has a 50min commute atm, and he is getting fed up with that.
So very excited. DH and I both went to Uni in Sheffield, we have lots of close friends who live there (including our best man & chief bridesmaid!), so it would be brilliant to live there again. Though will be sad to leave all the friends I have made in Teeside/Wearside though!
Of course there is still a chance he won't get the job... but you never know

[Arcadie]

BT Moving to the hallowed ground of Yorkshire! Your life is looking up my dear!!!!

[suey2]

congratulations BT! I really hope it works out.