I struck a blow against blimmin'Bertie Bear.

[Mirage]

Last year I had a rant about dd1 bringing Bertie Bear home from pre school,with instructions for me to write a diary of his activites during his stay with us.

Naturally,with 2 under 2's a job,college & a semi derelict house,writing a bears diary wasn't high on my list of priorities,plus all the previous mums had tried to outdo each other with cultural & 'happy family' entries.So I turned to Mumsnet for help.Suggestions included going foxhunting,piercings,taking drugs(thankyou Colditz)& various other unwholesome things.But I chickened out & wrote bland stuff instead.

Anyway,the damned bear came back here again last week.He was put in the conservatory & promptly forgotten about.On the day he was due to go back,I was panicked at the thought of making up a load of rubbish about what we'd done,so just wrote that he had gone into hibernation.I mentioned to a few of the preschool mums that we'd had Bertie & they all rolled their eyes & said how awful it was & that everyone tried to outdo each other with the dreadful diary.I then told them what I'd done & that my chances of getting Bertie again were slim.Ha,they fell about laughing & said it was about time someone put a stop to it.

Well done that woman.

Bertie Bear???????????? (Am I missing something???)

Bertie bear is a teddy which has a case full of small plastic belongings.He is given to each pre school child to take home,with a letter to the parents spouting guff about how caring for Bertie teaches children responsibility & how your child should be encouraged to take Bertie to day to day activities.The unfortunate parent then has to write in Bertie's diary,what he has done whilst at your home.

This not only is annoying,as the small plastic bits get mixed up with all your childs plastic toys & they are not interested in the bear anyway,but the diary is a battle of one upmanship from other mothers.
ie if one writes that they took Bertie to the pictures,another will write that Bertie watched a film of the family holiday to the Carribean in the 'media room'.The bear also goes to play with the childs friends a lot,thus letting you know that their child,a]is v.v popular & b]that their childs friends are richer than yours because they have x,y & z to play with in their playroom.

I find it ifuriating & was determined that I wasn't going to perpetuate it.

Ds had exactly the same thing to do at nursery, but it was Harry the Hedgehog, cant even remember what I put in his diary.

lol mirage - give Bertie the most over the top day possible!! - but then it was all a dream as as soon as he went into the Mirage he was put in quarentine!!

Harrrr LOL well done! Bears do hibernate anyway.