In thinking this is the smuggest article I have ever had the misfortune to read

[mrsshackleton]

"We are so bloody marvellous and everyone else is wrong"

I've never read such a load of judgemental codswallop

Branded Winnie the Poo equipment - OMG!!

I have a horrible feeling that I may have had some Winnie the Pooh things, maybe even the books fgs, when my son was little - Oh dear. I am a chav.

Catnao oh dear, then I'm definitely a chav (whatever that is). I'm planning on using Winnie the Pooh items I still have from DS1 and I've just bought some Winnie the Pooh bits recently!

Larf @Tondelayo excellent analysis of the situation

how smug!
I was err young when DC was born so its pretty offensive soon, being young doesnt mean i'm shooting them out like a BB gun

Glad I'm not the only one, LibraPoppyGirl! I never even KNEW Winnie the Pooh was chavvy, so how chavvy am I??

My son had a Winnie thePpooh themed bedroom. I was 39 when he was born.
And what difference does it make what age you are when you have your first child? I was quite calm, but so is my 21 year old niece. There are no rules.
The guy is an arsehole.

Tondelay!! Arfety arf, I was thinking much the same thing!

He says: "She [his mother] would, in other words, have been wiser, and that would have made her, and me, less panicky." So it's his mother's fault that he's overanxious? Surely by the age of 40+ he's old enough to take responsibility for his own personality defects rather than blaming them on his mother?

And yet he grandiosely praises himself for his spectacular maturity.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=thecrowcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/4240744343_8fa391fc85_o.jpg&imgrefurl=thecrowcouncil.co.uk/blog/&usg=__9cpOu5L1oyeIEkptisFkK6wh3Xw=&h=683&w=1024&sz=129&hl=en&start=21&sig2=c1H85b9LLtsuMD94q-FK4g&zoom=0&tbnid=moe4r1nOd0kNrM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&ei=skBsTcDsLIaC5AaAgqnfCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhorse%2Bblinkers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D619%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C505&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=442&oei=o0BsTZyiDeOqhAfeiOX7Aw&page=2&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:21&tx=73&ty=55&biw=1280&bih=619" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andrew Billen, as Philip Larkin said, "they f--- you up, your mum and dad"...and then we are meant to grow up and sort ourselves out.

How lucky for your mother that she's no longer around to see the crap you write about her, yourself and other people.

i think he has issues with his mum

How thoroughly unpleasant. I'm an NCTer and I'd be appalled if anyone who attended classes was treated so appallingly by her NCT group.

Why do we allow the media to portray motherhood as some sort of competition? Older mothers/younger mothers there's no right or wrong. Just because one makes different choices to someone else it does not mean that anyone who did something differently is criticising our choices.

Poor Winnie the Pooh he's a bear of very little brain (by his own admission) and we're chavs Catnao and bigbeagleeyes what are we to do

haven't read the whole thread, but I don't think anyone should be suggesting women wait till their 40 for babies. The risks of mutations in both sperm and egg cells increase dramatically with age. my husband is a geneticist working on the paternal age effect and there are numerous unpleasant conditions that are linked to older fathers, as well as the risks like downs syndrome and cystic fibrosis that are commonly known about from the older mother.

I'm

Can someone be so stupid and get paid to write articles??
He can't be really so smug and so stupid surely he must pretend to be.

Lol at the hot chocholate, is this the worse thing he has seen? Well i let my mil do it and i'm 'late mum' .

Spaghetti - exactly. The writer is a moron.

And Murdoch wonders why nobody wanted to pay to read this kind of shit online.

Haha as soon as I saw the thread title I remembered this ghastly article, then when I clicked I realised it was about the very same article- my dsis and I sat and read it in total mystification! It's about a year or so old isn't it?
And he's STILL a twat!

What's the deal with Winnie the Pooh bashing? LOL I was 20 when I had DD, and she had Winnie the Pooh stuff in her room. And I was 39 when I had DS2 and 42 when I had DS3... Winnie the Pooh stuff again. In fact, DS2 and DS3 both still have some Winnie the Pooh themed items in their rooms. I happen to like Winnie the Pooh.

Have I missed something? Is it now considered gang clothing or chavvy? Good grief, what a nut!

And I will say I was a bit more nervous at 20 than I am now, but other than different circumstances (SAHM this time), not that horribly much different.

wait till the child grows up. See what happens. Might not be the perfect child they thought lol

Just can't believe that someone calls this "work". I could have dashed that off in about twenty minutes. Seriously, he gets paid for this, while others have to actually earn their cash!

urgh couldn't even read the whole thing. I'm sure his dm would have been delighted to have him pick apart what he views as her failures and write an article about it.

stupid stupid man.

I also have winnie the pooh stuff - oh the shame (apparently)

I had my DD at 42. She was born prematurely and both of us were lucky to make it, although I've been healthy all my life. Due to the likelihood of complications for older mothers, there is addititional strain on the NHS in terms of funding for tests and intensive SCBU treatment. This will only increase as more babies are born to older mothers.

Personally, being older has worked for me in many respects. I've had a career and I am financially stable. However, most of my family (and DP's) are no longer with us, and those who are require care and support. This is sometimes difficult if you are already caring for young children. I have far less energy than I used to and, being older, I am perhaps more set in my ways now, and sometimes find difficulty relating to younger mothers. It's easy for men to be smug about motherhood-they don't do the hard work, do they?

Just found this thread...what a jerk!

For the record, the few first time mums over 40 that I know are much less calm. They're only going to have the one, and they worked so hard to get their DCs and I think that raises the stakes a bit. (This is only the handful I know, though, I'm sure there are just as many "older" mums out there who are relaxed as can be :) )

It's irritating, too, because it seems like younger mothers can't win with the author of the article. His own young mother was much too panicky and strict, and the mother commiting the heinous crimes of buying Winnie the Pooh items and putting chocolate in her son's mouth is too lax.

The last paragraph especially makes me spit blood.

OMG hot chocolate! call the police.

I had DC1 and 2 in my twenties, then big gap and DC3 in my very late 30's. I am MUCH more nonchalant with DC3 than i was with the other two which is why he is a spoilt little shit free spirit!
Things that would really bother me with the first two make me shrug and "meh" with the 3rd one. I pick my battles much more carefully now that I am old (47). All 3 of them love Winne the Pooh, or "wintyrapoo" as DD1 called him fondly!

What a prat, I had DS when I was 35 as we had fertility probs. My Mum had me and me sisters at 21, 25 and 35 and she has been great. Age is totally irrelevant, great parents come in all shapes and sizes and all ages.

That about sums it up, beryl. :) I can't see that I'll ever have the money for fertility treatments, I'm married to a man who's a wonderful father, and we're fairly set financially. Also, I don't have any big "career"; I work part-time at our school. Why wouldn't I have children now? Being in my twenties has nothing to do with it. I was 24 when DS was born, which I thought was normal, but I got a lot of "Oh, you're really young!" Um...no, not really, but thank you!