Hellooo everyone
Have had a busy few days at work, but am off now for a wee while.
Serpent - I think you very astutely picked up on some stuff that was left unsaid by me. OstrichChick (7) was also premature (29 weeks) and our hospital experiences played a large part in our decision for a longer-than-average age gap. The reason for the prem birth was unexplained, and we were just given a 3x greater risk of it happening again. We saw lots of families in NICU struggling with a bored/confused toddler, and didn't want that to be us. I thought DD would be able to cope from the age of 5 or so, but it took us a long time to conceive again, and then the miscarriage, and DH's reluctance... who knows what will be... I think you were trying to say it does get better?
I wonder if it's worth asking Wriggle what they've been talking about at nursery? I know that "getting lost" seems to be one of the topics they cover, and they might have not explained things in a way she could understand, and she's erring on the side of caution by not wanting to lose you in the first place? We have been having enormous problems with OstrichChick reverting to toddler behaviour and trying to climb up our legs when adults (e.g. work colleagues) try to talk to her. After a long time we worked out that the infants school had been over-doing the "stranger danger" topic. They had painted things very black and white, with the result that Chick thinks that nearly all adults are dangerous "strangers". For her, that includes people such as seldom-seen family friends, people working on supermarket checkouts, etc. We've tried to reframe it by calling these people "unfamiliar adults" and saying it's fine to speak to them when you're with a parent or other trusted adult. It's been a real struggle though as her behaviour/fear had become deeply ingrained because it took us so long to work out what was going on in her head.
Teachers - religion can be a confusing thing! During her infant years, Chick came home and was talking about "Christums" and "Christmas Eid" (was a couple of years ago when Eid fell very close to Christmas). Hilarious!
UniS - I remember the aspidistra too, and the vortex... goodness me, that takes me back... am I old? Maybe we should adopt the drogna as the local Greek currency?
About the schools question - don't know! I agree with whoever said it depends on how happy they perceive their schooling to have been? As for me, educated in a very ordinary (but good) comprehensive in an ordinary market town, with catchment straddling pie-wedge cross-section from ethnic-minority-occupied terraces, council estate, suburbs, affluent villages. It was good enough to get me where I wanted to be, and did not hold me back academically. In fact, I coped better academically at university than most of the privately educated people because I was more used to doing things for myself, and they had been much more hothoused and spoonfed. I did admire/envy their confidence though... they just seemed to ooze a sense of being capable and entitled, and I think that's what gets them places. Might not have been their schooling though, might have been their parenting... who knows? So as a result of my education, I have rubbed shoulders with a huge range of social strata, and I think that helps in adult life, especially if you are in a job where you might have to behave/respond in different ways to different people.
Chick goes to local state juniors, having recently finished local state infants. I imagine she will go to local state comprehensive, which has neither a particularly bad nor good reputation. I might think differently if the local comp was shite. I'm not hugely idealistically against private schooling, but just don't see the necessity for it at present. We would reconsider if she was particularly unhappy in the local comp. I am deeply opposed to faith schools, but that's a can of worms probably best not opened here, especially as I see that many of you have attended them! Horses for courses... Thankfully schooling is something DH and I agree on. I can imagine it being very difficult otherwise.
Amber - hope your testing is/was not too traumatic, and that you are feeling okay about the operation.
Christmas grub?? Glass of whisky, mince pie, carrot for the reindeer. Usual pattern - DH downs whisky and mince pie. I nibble carrot artistically, leaving reindeer teethmarks in the stump. We leave the foil dish and crumbs on the plate, and the carrot on Rudolf's plate. The pie is not home-made, obviously! One year we had to do it all over again because DH (on auto-pilot) washed up. Doh!