to think if you do the fun stuff you should attend the duty stuff aswell.

[missmapp]

Ds1 goes to Beavers, it is a lovely group and they do lots of fun events, camp fires, night time walks, activity days, visits to lots of exciting places- these are always well attended. As it is Rememberance Sunday tomorrow , they have been asked to go to the Church Parade.

I wasn't sure of the time, so phoned a few other Mum's- all have said their ds does not want to go, so they won't be attending. Now Ds normally goes to football on a Sunday morning, but I have told him he needs to go to the service as it is part of being a Beaver. It saddens me that lots turn up to the fun things, but this will be a low turn out ( as it was last year-only 2my ds and 2 others)

So, AIBU ?

Mine does currently fit on the next-to-last hole of the 26" belt: leather there is really stiff, was a bit of a battle to move it up there. No risk of a Guide demanding to know what I was holding this time around - a couple of years ago I'd a Guide fully freak out about the size the belt was when done up without me in it. That was a bit awkward

That is supersplendacious about your daughter. I didn't start ballet until I was an adult - 5 months after major reconstructive surgery on both knees, perfect timing, I feel - which is rather a shame as it would've helped limit some of the damage I've racked up over the years. Might also have been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos earlier too, given it was my ballet teacher who Started Things after realising my right shoulder was sitting all sorts of wrong & not correctable. She had me get a physio referral & the physio I saw (aka Superphysio) took my history & essentially went "um... this is A Thing & I think it is either Ehlers-Danlos or Marfan's you need to see Prof G the Superspecialist". My Awesome GP did the referral despite my not really fitting either profile properly [any more] & Superphysio got All The Points because not only is it Ehlers-Danlos she'd also caught my "incomplete Marfanoid habitus".

Despite the NHS rules & funding stuff Superphysio managed to hold on to me as a patient for AGES & I was re-referred to Her Specifically after a More Serious Than Usual injury & she took on my last lot of post-op physio despite not being at the hospital where my orthostuff (now) happens. She was always v supportive about ballet - well, bar(re) pointe work, but she doesn't think ANYONE should do pointe work EVER. When she rules the world there are going to be ceremonial pointe shoe burnings across the globe, I suspect I have just started with a new physio at My Ortho Hospital 1 & she seems very nice & (unlike the ward physios after my last surgery!) has already done some research into Ehlers-Danlos. However, she seems to have some wildly optimistic ideas about how quickly physio will take effect: she's expecting to see improvement in a fortnight! Oh, I wish...

The Superspecialist Prof G (who can no longer see me for annual review thanks to funding cuts ) is incredibly pro-ballet. He thinks ALL his patients should do it & if he could get the NHS to pay for my classes he would do so because he thinks they are vital to deterioration-slowing. If the sheer joy of dance wasn't enough motivation to get to class, the knowledge ballet's what's keeping being wheelchair-bound at bay is a definite spur. I hope to keep the wheelchair's main function to being a climbing-frame for the kittens for as long as possible

As for your dissertation that is awful Did you go after them for plagiarism? If it turns out NOT to be in that article I'll have another look at my bibliography... That article turned into a conversation by the way, so Athens can provide some more procrastination material Scouting history for you

(On a side-note, we seem to have slightly hijacked the thread here. Oops?)

Beavers are part of scouts aren't they? Which is a religious organisation. YANBU.

Ach, only cos nobody bit when Gabby went fishing.

Noone's thinking about Remembrance Day any more. Done for another year.

The pointe stuff is interesting. I think dd1 might end up dancing pointe for a couple of years, but dd2 definitely won't. Dd1 is a tapper at heart, so the ballet is just for general technique, really. There's no way she's going to end up as a professional dancer, so if anything it will be a once a week class for six months of the year.

Dd2 has cerebral palsy, but her issues with low tone are very similar to EDS. She can't tap (she did try) but ballet is perfect for her.

I didn't go after the plagiarism. But I glare at the book periodically. Karma will sort it out, I don't have time!

Leaving us free to chatter randomly for a year?

Suspect tap probably wouldn't end too well for me either: I'd quite like to give it a whirl though. Would like to do Irish Dancing even more, but can see that maybe not working out terribly well. Turned out my physio may have had a point(e) with her objections: it was doing pointework that ripped most of the cartilage off the back of my kneecap last year. I thought I'd just trapped a lump of scar tissue in the joint & carried on; thread the cartilage was hanging by eventually snapped as I was walking up the stairs after a riding lesson & my leg locked out. As it (eventually!) spontaneously unstuck & the MRI showed nothing it wasn't until surgery 3 months later to remove the scar tissue & clean the joint up that it was discovered I'd actually done this. Better still, the ward staff then misunderstood the surgical notes & didn't realise that was what had happened & that I'd had a load of microfracturing & other reconstructive stuff done & thus I was discharged too early. Oopsie? Am now waiting to hear if they might be able to do a cartilage graft so I can keen my own kneecap for a bit longer. It is a Very Norty Kneecap (it tried to do a turn on its own during rehearsal tonight so my beautiful final pose was neither beautiful nor a pose) but I am quite keen to keep it all the same...

Imagine ballet must be very good if she has tendon-shortening due to the CP? Certainly splendid for balance & strengthening - and of course the wonder that is proprioception. Mind you, it is a point of pride with me that, despite my epic proprioception FAIL I do not dance on top of other people. Shame the same can't be said of other people who don't have that excuse, frankly. For a while there was a woman in one of my classes who was such a menace like that on one occasion our teacher literally led her around the grand allegro exercise to prevent my being jumped on. I have been really lucky with my teachers in terms of their coping with my disabilities, thankfully, even with some Quite Scary Stuff: I hope your DD2 has [a] Similarly Awesome teacher(s)

I do quite enjoy using "I have danced on-stage at the Royal Opera House & London Coliseum" as An Unusual Fact About Myself for icebreaker type-things at events where I am using The Wheelchair. Mwahahahahahaha. Hem.

Sincerely hope that The Donkey Of Destiny gives your plagiariser a suitable kicking. With pooey hooves, naturally

Ah, mine is 'I took part in a drinking race with a monk and a nun'.

In guiding circles, I suspect yours goes down better.

Dd2 has been v lucky. She is in her fourth dance school now, and we have only praise for the teachers that work out quite what to do with her!

Oh, I dunno, I reckon in my County yours would go down a storm... With mine I do so love watching people trying to disguise the look of how the hell did THAT work? It's a bit like how I am still terribly tempted to go somewhere superbusycrowded in The Wheelchair & then leap out of it crying "It's a miracle, I'm healed!" (or similar) & dance...

Am v glad to hear your DD2 has [had] awesome teachers: makes such a difference

We have that with dd2. for a long while we would schlep her to playgrounds in the wheelchair (because otherwise she was too knackered to play when she got there/ or would have fallen over en route) and then let her get out and walk/ climb. V funny. Swivel- heads everywhere.

It's amazing so many people think people who use wheelchairs cannot walk/stand at all ever

I agree with you. It's not about religion it's about respect. My son attends Beavers and missed one session as he had his Holy Communion preparation class. The week before we had a letter home to explain they were expected to attend a memorial service for Rememberence Sunday. Come the Sunday and I texted one of the leaders to clarify it was still on and their attendance had been cancelled due to not enough leaders avavilable. I thought that was really crap! Why send a letter like that in the first place AND I wouldn't have known it was cancelled unless I checked!

Saulabout - similar happened here. Though for us the excuse was "they had done something at school" so church parade was moved to this upcoming Sunday instead. With parents who didn't specifically ask about it or had other plans in the lurch as a few showed up anyway as there was no announcement. It can all be a bit of a mess at times.

Well, the leaders can have a last minute vomiting kid, same as anyone else. In fact that's what happened here. Fortunately the panic contact I had from the brownie guider we could cope with, as I knew we still had enough adults for ratio and could cope with her girls as well. Yep, they should have sent you an email or a quick call to say 'canx', but sometimes someone falls through the net. The volunteers do their best to cope with conflicting commitments.

If communication is crap in your unit because the volunteer leaders don't have time to do admin out of planning meetings and camps etc, it would be great if a parent would volunteer to do a monthly newsletter?

Or organize a phone tree?

All of the volunteers would appreciate a hand with the stuff they are finding hard - especially from a mum or dad who knows how important it is and can keep up with it?