To wonder if Mrs. Pontipine really wanted ten children...

[professorsnape]

Is she happy?

She must get only a teeny-weeny bit of time for herself.

How did she even conceive them as look at the state Mr. Pontipine's handlebar moustache!!!

...and they co-sleep with all the children in the same room!

GML, food and lots of nappies. And contraception.

stealthsquiggle, I think they need a lot of space to grow the mind altering drugs that they must all be on.

I hope the little Wattingers aren't all boys and the little Pontipines aren't all girls or there will be a heck of a lot of teenage pregnancies in the night garden!

The Pontipine kids are fairly self-reliant, there is nothing to harm them in the Garden, and if they get lost they just fly back to the chimney. Hard to argue they are at any risk. Food appears, Makka Pakka cleans everything. There's really not much to do care wise. Although the dreadful competition with the posher Wottingers must be wearing.

So, as to time to please herself (with or without Mr P) she has all the time the kids are off on the Ninky-Nonk, lost in Upsy-Daisy's bed, or whenever the kids go off to play hide-and-seek.

Sorry, the socio-economic background of THG preoccupied me a lot in the past when I was SAHP. I long for the day when Makka Pakka throws down his cleaning tools, sends absentee noble Iggle-Piggle off to sea for ever, makes the others clean up after themselves and builds the Workers' Republic of the Garden. But the silly bugger's too forelock-tugging to do it, and probably too heavily drugged for his stone-OCD thing to become class conscious.

I once watched my students (outside of seminar time) analyse ITHG as a Marxist, feminist, cultural or institutional historian would. It was one of the few times I felt they were actually learning stuff.

Pottingers or Wantipines :o

I think it's discrimination of the worst kind to have so much of the Pontipines and so little of the Wattingers. Have CBeebies been bribed? Is Derek Jacob, in fact, a Pontipine?

As an aside, DD aged 2 thinks DS (11) is the most wonderful being in Creation because he can recite Makka Pakka's song to her

My DP pointed out that it's very odd how Mr. and Mrs. Pontipine managed to get eight children, yet they sleep in separate beds.

Also, did anyone see the episode where they let the children carry a heavy table of food into the Ninky Nonk with icecream and cake for Mr. and Mrs. Pontipine, and 8 bowls of horrible grog for the little Pontipines. AIBU to ring social services?

Adela, do you think they had to do a risk assessment before letting them fly down the chimney! And, for that matter, has Santa been CRB checked in case he is there at the same time?

Well mr. Pontipine is clearly in the witness protection program. That's why there is such a furore when he loses his moustache.

or, he's a crim, hiding from the law.

I always wonder which family installed the bell.

I don't think there will be any more babies- Mr and Mrs Pontipine are practicing geographic contraception

well, DD (2.6) helpfully pointed out that they don't kiss the children goodnight, so it's only a matter of time before it all falls apart

The Pottingers are friends of mine
although they're only small
I go by on the weekends
and help them drink their wine.

• Tee's DH's version of the Pottingers rhyme

I always wonder how the parents have time to keep their house so tidy and their lawn so neat. And when does MR pontipine get time to preen his moustache into such perfection???

it's clearly an epidemic spreading through cbeebies...Baby Jake has got 9 siblings. They live in a windmill...those parents must have good calf muscles.

This is nearly as sad as me ringing up the bbc asking what relationship Judy and Max share in the tweenies .

You can't leave it there nickschick, what did they say?

Judy is a childminder and Max is her Dad and he is also registered as a childminder to assist Judy in her business - the house the tweenies play in isnt Max and Judys home Max is allowed to take the tweenies out in his car (a sporty xr3i i think)- I didnt query the dogs as I felt I was becoming a nuisance.

It was a lovely man who answered my call and rang me back after he'd researched the answers.

grin] its true I did ring lol.

And I got an advert removed from tv and magazines it was a video advert for the tweenies saying 'cheap childcare this summer with videos from wh smith' I reported it and said it negated the work legitimate child carers do.

Maybe she just wanted to claim all that child benefit lol

Ciske - your DH has got it the wrong way round. Clearly the 8 children is why they now sleep in separate beds! Mrs Pontipine's pelvic floor cannot take any more.

nickschick

perhaps it's more like jon and kate +8...octomum has other children

I always thought they were Amish.

They are highly irresponsible parents though - one episode all eight children became stuck inside a pair of Tombliboo trousers, and instead of trying to release them, Mr & Mrs T buggered off home (presumably ttc number 9).

My DS identifies them as the Cardinals (red) and the Jesuits (blue)! So it's fairly obvious why they have so many children