OMG LG, that's horrible 
. I think mixed gender families can bring their own brand of smugness (certainly see a lot of it on MN!), but that is horrible! Have a friend on FB that has an older son and younger daughter - as soon as daughter was born her FB pic changed to pics of her and has remained so, and we rarely hear a word about the boy. I don't see her much in RL anymore (she lives miles away) but I do wonder if boy picks up on this bias . So in answer to your question Secret, I think it can work both ways - I have encountered the "boy first, girl second" mums who were totally relieved not to have two boys and who definitely favour their girls .
And congrats on your Christmas shopping LG 
. I'm just about to look at the Web Ivory catalogue Secret, does that count? 17 kids????? 
Yes, way too many! It always amazes me how much people spend on Christmas presents and how many people others buy for - does anyone here still buy for siblings cos we stopped years ago? We buy for the boys, each other, our parents and dh's grandad. (I will, of course, be adding Goddaughters to that list , especially if it means I can buy more popstar Barbies especially for Gig the Gigs 
!). That's it!!!! Is that really stingy?! I find it so sad that people run up debts that they spend months paying off, and so much is spent on total and utter tat - the shops are already full of tat for adults to buy each other for Christmas and most of it will be in the bin by January 
. Sorry, very bah humbug I know!
Secret, sorry to hear you were worried about the school . Do you know any parents of kids already there? I think other parental experiences are so important in these circumstances.
IKWYM about anxieties brought on by your own experiences - I was telling Gig this week that DS1 told me on Wednesday that two boys in the other YR class had decided they didn't like him so were chasing him and "trying to kill him" and hitting him . He was incredibly matter of fact about it and a bit bemused because, as he said, "I'm just nice to all the people in my class mummy" . I wrestled about what to do and then phoned his teacher Thursday lunchtime just to give her the heads up - she was brilliant, told me I had done the right thing and by the time I picked him up from school she'd identified the culprits, spoken to them and spoken to DS1 about how he must always tell a teacher if someone was being unkind to him. Very impressed. I will obviously keep an eye on the situation, but I was reassured.
Just made me feel so sad to think that, only three weeks in, kids are behaving so unpleasantly. Why do they do it?
Talking of unpleasant, yay about your neighbours Secret !
Gig, DS1's uniform is a total and utter mess! I will not be buying white again - red and green polo shirts from now on! All five of them are now trashed, his jumpers are stained and the bottom of all his trousers are frayed where he walks on them 
. Oh well - he had one day looking smart .
So utterly tragic about this little girl. Devastating for her parents, but (and this is maybe because I come from a family of nurses) I also always feel so sad for the staff involved in these things - how horrendous to have that death on your conscience. We all fuck up at work, but when doctors and nurses fuck up the end results can be utter tragedy .