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Original poster

Tea Room the Thirteenth

984 replies

amberlight · 31/01/2010 15:49

Welcome to the newest instalment of the One Parent Families tea room. As it's heading for spring, we're now in a nice warm orangery surrounded by woodland filled with spring flowers. All are very welcome to join in with us parents of one (or indeed more!), the tea room gardener/handyman Mellors, various virtual Bishops (don't ask) and a variety of other characters from previous tea rooms. Grab a cuppa, relax!...

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mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 09:49

Coffee of preference and a cinamon danish anyone?

StillCrazyAfterAllTheseYears · 08/02/2010 10:17

Could I have a hot chocolate with my cinnamon Danish?

How Mondayish are we all feeling?

MaryBS · 08/02/2010 10:21

Its very cold out, and its trying to snow. Hot choc would be good I think. Although a nice cappuccino and danish sounds fab!

AandO · 08/02/2010 10:28

Morning! Coffee sounds great!

I worked on Friday, Sat and Sun nights once I put ds to bed and so was able to send off a report this morning that has been hanging around for too long so I'm feeling all relaxed today, no report stresses !!

Potty training take 5 is starting today

How is everyone?

mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 10:46

here.

MaryBS · 08/02/2010 11:17

RU OK mistlethrush? Have a sticky bun...

StillCrazyAfterAllTheseYears · 08/02/2010 11:56

here too, but hoping for an outbreak of later.

Potty training take 5? Do you need a slug of brandy in your coffee AndO?

CMOTdibbler · 08/02/2010 12:04

It's that grey, sickly, nothing to really look forward to till Easter time of the year isn't it ? Gah.

Chicken and sweetcorn soup and some cheesy bread rolls on offer today.

mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 12:31

I'll take you up on the sweetcorn (sans poulet) soup (don't know why that came out in French - clearly Tea's influence ).

Apparently its my fault that someone else got stroppy with me, and basically accused me of being money grabbing (actually company car grabbing) when I wasn't and what I had asked was actually perfectly reasonable, and not anything onerous for a 6mo pregnant colleague (as she seemed to think).

And personally I don't care if she's 6mo pregant - it doesn't mean that she can act up like that.

I'm and and and if she carries on like this I'll be in tears in the middle of the office. And I don't care who sees it. Perhaps they'll realise the impact some of this can have....

Original poster
amberlight · 08/02/2010 12:31

Yes please to anything that's going. It's snowing again which isn't very welcome.

Daisy, I can't ride on account of the arthritis and back problems, alas. Physio threatened to sit on me if I tried it again. Grr. But I'm handy for grooming duties.

OP posts:
AandO · 08/02/2010 12:33

This is outsourced potty training!!

We have tried a bunch, he is 3.4 can do it but is the most defiant child in the world, plus he is always telling us he is a baby, doesn't seem to want to grow up right now and says that he thinks nappies are better than underpants, that he'd prefer to wear nappies.

So on Thursday his preschool teacher told me that he had done a wee in the toliet and that I should just bring him in on Monday in underpants and see how it goes. He will then go from there to his childminder who has two kids his age, both of whom are potty trained. So the hope is that he will go to the loo when his school friends, friends at his childminders go. So...I have outsourced potty training !!

mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 12:39

I hope it works A&O! We were lucky - ds had got the idea of a potty (I read him a story as he sat on it morning and night for quite some months ) and basically did it himself over a weekend, a bit sooner than I had planned (I was going to take a week off when the weather was a bit better) when he was 2.2.... He was really proud of his big boy pants at nursery and we managed to find some that gave c. 30secs grace to get trousers off before they got wet (washable ones) which helped us at that age... And then he discovered weeing in bushes in the park (and used to 'save up' on purpose when we were about to go out for a walk just so he could wee alfresco!!!)

CMOTdibbler · 08/02/2010 12:44

Tis amazing how small boys love an alfresco wee isn't it ! Although I think it applies just as much to not so small boys too - during the snow I watched a load of 13 ish year olds having huge fun weeing in the snow on a remote patch of the green in front of our house

Sounds like your colleague is being a bit of a drama queen Mistle

mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 13:01

Yes, she is.

However, I have taken in an olive branch and she has accepted - we're blaming someone else (one of the Directors) for not doing their job properly.

Original poster
amberlight · 08/02/2010 14:00

Phew re your colleague - MT. Have another cuppa, and a hug from Mellors.

OP posts:
daisy99divine · 08/02/2010 17:05

Mistle love the olive branch of moving blame elsewhere, but sorry morning was pants. Hope it works

AandO hope your pants work in a different way

DaisyBoy decided he was going to wear big boy pants, and that was it. We had one small incident in the car where he couldn't wait, but amazing managed to wee in a take away coffee cup (some of you long term TeaRoomers may remember ) but that was about it.

CMOT All boys like an al fresco wee in my view. Both the Daisy males that's for sure...

Danish and double shot espresso here please - that will make me

mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 18:48

This new emoticon is very versatile isn't it!

I was trying to work out how to effectively let her off the hook without backing down myself (as, to be quite frank, I did nothing wrong) - and I hope that it worked.

Another angst ridden day following discussions with mistlechick's teacher. I know that he's a handful. But how an experienced teacher with only 20 children and a TA can't cope with one rather over energetic child, I don't know. Perhaps its because he's the liveliest out of the class by far.... and there are some really quiet children - so he just stands out even more. However, we've both come down on him like a ton of bricks, and I'm going to give him another talking to on the way to school tomorrow.

RacingSnake · 08/02/2010 20:06

Surely they could find some way of directing his energy? Giving him different tasks to the other children, for example, including him in handing out resources, etc. Or is he really swinging-off-the-light-fittings energetic? (We currently have a problem with a child of the same age repeatedly kicking the teacher and TA.)

I think Wriggle really toilet trained herself - I was too lazy laid back to try early, and she was 3 and a bit before starting. She is now dry at night long before her friends who started down that road much earlier (in spite of early motherly smugness, two friends are still in nappies at night.)

AandO · 08/02/2010 20:59

Well he weed in the loo all day at school and childminders. He didn't say he needed the loo but went when they took him (if it was me he would throw a complete tantrum if I tried to take him). So he was dry all day. As soon as he got home he ran into the utility room, 2 seconds later he shouted 'I'm all wet'. I went in and he'd done both a wee and poo in his underpants, I reckon he'd been holding until he got home. I'll carry on though and put him in pants again tomorrow. He turned 3 in October and I'm starting to think he'll never decide he's ready to train, but at the same time I don't want to push him and cause a trauma. He is the only child in his preschool in nappies and I know he can do it, but for some reason he refuses to .

AandO · 08/02/2010 20:59

Oh, dh still loves weeing in the park !

daisy99divine · 08/02/2010 21:00

well, DaisyBoy sort of sorted himself out - he decided he was going to wear pants, and just said that's it, no nappies

But he hasn't quite made the leap at bedtime. He has pull ups and has decided to wear nothing one night, and had one accident but that was it, but has since then said he wanted nappies again, so we shall see.....

I agree with the versatility of I am just going to see if some wine will make me look like that too care to join?

daisy99divine · 08/02/2010 21:02

AandO missed your post. I guess the fact that he ran to the loo means he was trying. I think accidents of timing are hard

Poor DaisyBoy - took me a few days to realise that dungarees were really really unfair! We still sometimes have "bursting" accidents - but that sort of thing is different from just not trying at all.... sounds like a really good day

And of course you need the Pre-Leaving House Wee, the Arrival Wee, the Pre-Eating Wee, the Post-Eating Wee, the Pre-Game Wee etc etc - just lots of standard wee opportunities....

Jacksmama · 08/02/2010 21:07

Hello everyone...

Would anyone like an enormous home-made cinnamon bun? (Home-made but not by me, I should say.)

The Jack Family is officially mostly over the plague. Three cheers (said rather hollowly). We saw friends of ours this morning who looked a bit taken aback when they saw us and later cautiously commented that we were looking a little pale and gaunt. Meh. I don't need this particular experience again!!

However, on a cheerful note: we watched the Olympic Torch Relay in our neighbourhood this morning! It was fab. Lots of people lining the street, waving and cheering and everyone in some form of red and white or outright Olympic gear. DH gave me a fabulous Olympic jacket for Christmas, it's fitted black quilted material, nylon I suppose, but very nice - with sweatshirt collar and cuffs in red and white bands, and it has the 2010 logo on one sleeve, and says CANADA across the chest in white letters. It's a nice weight too, warm but very light so suitable for our weather - which would be mega-early spring this year, unlike last year - the cherry trees are starting to bud!!! My tulips are sprinting up from the ground, my dianthus has a flower on it, and my snapdragons are coming up!! The magnolia tree down the lane has huge buds on it and may even bloom while my parents are here if the sun continues. Blue sky and gorgeous sunny weather here today. Was misting this morning but the sort of rain here you walk between the sprinkles, pretty typical for here.

I hope you're all ok. Catita, what a bummer that Kittenito's op had to be rescheduled again!! Grrrr.

StillCrazyAfterAllTheseYears · 08/02/2010 21:35

That description of Canadian spring has really made me .

And at all the al fresco wees. CrazyGirl (being somewhat older and a girl to boot) is very particular about where she wees. After a long journey on a loo-less train we alighted at a loo-less (and mercifully deserted) station and CrazyGirl was mortified that the most luxurious facility we could find was a large shrub.

AandO - Like Racingsnake, I found that relatively late toilet training worked very quickly. Whereas those smug mummies who used to swan about saying "of course, Jocasta was out of nappies before her second birthday" were still washing 40 pairs of knickers a week by the time Jocasta was three and a half. So hang on in there. It'll all come right soon.

Did I hear Daisy offering wine?

mistlethrush · 08/02/2010 22:31

He apparently 'punched' a TA on Friday. He told me that it was a hug gone wrong (which, in fact, you can understand, if he got distracted part way through the manoeuvre and turned away so that his hand made contact rather than encompassed). And today he was excluded from PE this morning and his teacher said that they had the best ever PE lesson. Which makes me feel very - he was excluded as he was swinging his arms around so much before the lesson. (When questioned afterwards he said he was 'excercising') And he apparently just says 'no' sometimes when asked to do some things. I really don't know what to do. The teacher does seem rather pathetic. I don't know whether to ask for him to be changed into the class where the teacher is apparently very scary for parents but the children all love her and she gets 100% obedience - but that would mean splitting him up from his two best friends (I get along with their parents too which makes it particularly nice that they are friends) - but if things don't improve we'll have to do something.