Tea Room the Fourteenth

[amberlight]

Welcome to the 14th instalment of the Tea Room. It's now officially spring, and we've moved the tea room to a Gipsy caravan pulled by the tea room horses, which is making its way up the countryside in an effort to follow spring. There are of course hedgerows filled with spring flowers, Mellors the handsome gardener/driver/handyperson, the usual virtual Bishops, and the assorted animals and characters from previous tea rooms. All are very welcome to join in with us parents of one (or indeed more!) for general chat and the occasional very odd conversation. Climb aboard, grab a cuppa, enjoy the view, relax!...

Hi, I'm Catita's trucker friend... LOL. Just kidding.
at small bombs and drug raids!!

I have just tried, for the seventh time, to upload some pictures onto a photo printing website... the previous six have crashed, wish me luck, I'd really like to put up some more recent pictures of JB in the office.

Speaking of Jackbaby, he has a cold and a fever. There go our playdate plans for the day. Boo hiss.

UniS - if it's just an issue of wondering what to do with your time following the lesson until your bus is due I find that LittleO just loves to splash around in the pool following his lesson. His lesson is from 2.30 - 3pm and then he just stays in the pool afterwards with some other kids, I usually drag him out of there between 4 - 4.30pm. So you wouldn't have to just hang around waiting for the bus. Of course, the 6.30 bus may be a problem because of getting dinner on and bedtime, and nothing to do with hanging around for a bus .

Tea - did you see the thread on something about childcare and breastfeeding in France? It said women return to work 10 weeks after giving birth, that there are few sahms and that French women do not breastfeed. It also indicated that the kids lives are very much full of structured activities. Are these your experiences of France? I was really surprised when reading this thread, had no idea of this.

Have some on me
Thanks for the good wishes girls, you're all so sweet. I might well be joining you in Oct then...

I saw the breastfeeding thread too, AandO. It sounds very similar to here, in the fact that if you have social security funded maternity leave (as I do), it is for 12 weeks. 6 weeks prior (counted from your 34 week) and 6 weeks after (counted from your 40 week, so woe betide those who go to 42). If you then put yor child in nursery straightaway (not me in this case) s/he is 6 weeks old, max. They do't do expressed breastmilk feeds so it is formula all the way from then on. Most working women, just FF as a result. But,lucky for me, I have a nice arrangement with a neighbour who baby-sits for me and doles out EBM (on a spoon... Gatita will not take a bottle). Kittenito had his in a bottle. I am considered very weird. G and K's Dr is at it all tbh and supportive. The previous one, who I dumped pretty soon, told me that FF was better for the baby and wanted to give extra vitimens and iron from day 1. He was also obessed with K's weight (he is tiny). This is not a worry for G though, who at nearly 5 months weighs 7kg (K reached that about 9 months )

X post with Nomore, [waves] and says hello there. You don't have to wait until October to join us you know, we have a very liberal entrance policy.

Daisy Shootouts aren't so exciting, but rather scary. We live in rumourville at the mo: no journalist will report the violence by the narcos because of fear of reprisals (which are extremely unpleasent, usually involving torture and the removal of limbs). Friends have witnessed some events and babysitting naieghbour's son is in charge of the local cementry, so we tend to hear about all the deaths. It's a product of our president's attempts to put his foot down. All he has done so far is increase the violence (ie there was none here until he started with this. It was concentrated on the border.)

at 'liberal entrance policy' Thanks for the welcome Catinahatita, I have just looked at your profile to see where you are (you're obviously not in the UK!) It sounds a lot like my sister's experience of living in Brazil.

I live in Mexico, the state of Tamaulipas to be exact, which is on the Northeast Gulf Coast, with a long border with Texas (300km away from me). This border is the cause of countless problems (among them the drug violence) and some advantages (shopping in Texas for a start, and good trade links for companies etc). We have a real drug war going on: half the time it's the traffickers against the army and the other half it's one gang against the other.

I'm still more likely to be run over by a bus/crash in one than witness a shoot out though. This I tell my students when they don't come to class (and they tend to come by bus)because of rumours of shooting (like yesterday). However, the culture of fear is easy to build and hard to knock down.

oooh heck Cat, it does sound somewhat scarey. At least, compared to devon, tho we do have people being shot occasionally round here too, often by accident or when drunk, quite a few shotguns about on farms.

CMOT- thank you for cow codes, have now ordered a baking set and a day out discount voucher. Will think of you as we look at the dinosaurs of Coombe Martin on our staycation.

A&O- if only it were possible , boy would love to hang around in pool, but the duckling lesson ( hes big enough not to need me in water) is only one of a seris, no space for mere splashing, its wall to wall teaching for 2 hours. The town pool is only a single pool- not much more than a school pool really.
Private lessons at time to suit would be 14 quid for 30 mins, not really affordable for 10 weeks for a 4 yr old. I think I'll see if they offer intensive courses in holidays, that might be doable again, 30 mins a day for 5 days, was good for his confidence last summer.

Um, chored beckon. so I leave you ladies in the light of lanterns hanging from the tent poles, the glow of the camp-fire reaching through the open doorway...
Mellors oiled and waiting by the massage table.

Glad to hear that Daisy is feeling more cheerful, even if only determinedly so, and that AandO has something great to look forward to.

I am watching The Cave Of The Yellow Dog - one of the loveliest films I know.

Can I interest anyone in a bowl of jelly? It's proving remarkably long lasting.

Mmm, thank you Racing. The carrots add a certain something I think

Congratulations to NoMoreMagnolia

Glad the codes were useful UniS - I envy you the dinosaurs

DS was apparently really badly behaved today. Don't know what was up with him

Anyone for a toasted marshmallow ?

I was about to post something profound about drug gangs and violence, but I was diverted by the sight of an Oiled Mellors

Mmm Racing that jelly is a masterpiece

Oh CMOT he was probably just being badly behaved. It happens. It just seems big when you are miles away. When you are close it is just annoying. I am amazed by the amount of times my DaisyBoy is well behaved. He does better than me if I got pulled up every time I forgot to say please and thank you or didn't wait or wasn't polite or something, well glory be it'd be tantrums all the way....sometimes I fear we do expect an awful lot of our wee ones

oh CMOT I have just read my post now it is up and it sounds as if I am criticising you and Tiddler or commenting on your parenting

That wasn't what I meant at all, I was simply musing about children and what I meant about Tiddler was maybe he was just having a bad day but when you are stuck far rom home it is hard to evaluate.... sorry I hope I haven't upset you

by the way, I am loving the CCC book and it really really does make me think of the Tearoom

Save that we can be read (and indeed joined) by Dave the Trucker etc. And by and large we don't have 5 or 6 children each

Which segues nicely to a warm welcoming hello to momore. I did try to find you on conception but without a thread clue I got a bit bogged down in impenetrable codes of infertility/ treatment and couldn't find you. However, I get the gist. Lovely news. Bump on way. Looked forward too hugely. Expected in October HURRAH!

Hello nomore - you're welcome to stay and wait out your time here, you can indulge in virtual bolly, cream cheese, seafood and all the other lovely stuff that you might have to restrict now until October.

Catita - at your environmental situation and the shortsightedness of your Big Man. to hear you've all got the lurgy again as well.

A&O - I wouldn't want to set up at home until I "know" clients - it's too big a risk bringing a complete unknown into your own home, especially with a little one here as well.

CMOTD - that was me who asked if you get fed up, but I am getting used to the strange interchangeability between myself and mistlethrush!

Sorry A&O, that sounded a bit brusque, didn't mean it too! Thank you for the idea and your first essay into advice - it's something that people who don't work in the field wouldn't immediately think of to be honest.

Evening. Would anyone like some cider before the government tax the f* out of it? What d'you think, any chance of cider riots in Devon UniS?

I am babysitting. AKA drinking wine and watching Watchmen in my neighbour's house.

??? on the cider - what's that all about then?

I used to drink a lot of cider - my favourite one was called Addlestones - it was like proper scrumpy but on tap in the local pubs. Yum - all appley and cloudy and lovely.

Gotta go and get ready for playgroup now - 3rd time this week!

sorry, did I hear you right, paying tax on cider?? paying for cider??? I'm just waiting till the village cider tasting , when we will find out of our collective efforts in October produced a drinkable cider or not. then I believe its down to taking a jug along to the barrels and helping self...

Cider riots would certainly be a possibility. more pubs closing is even more likely.

Did you hear of the prayerbook rebellion, that got heated just a few miles up the road from here, head rolled , literally.

Work wise, I'm more concerned about proposals to introduce a mandatory quota of bio diesel into regular diesel. That's going to ugger up the generator filters good and proper.

Welcome nomore! I am pretty new here myself, only been here since January I think.

Decided on an early night since I felt so much happier after one last night, went up to bed at 9pm, slept at about 10pm but woke up to the neighbours dog barking so got up again, so annoying.

Catita, I guess we are really lucky in the UK and Ireland with our maternity leave. Well, I suppose its better in several European countries, but on a worldwide scale we probably do pretty well. Most of my family live in the US and they also get a pretty bad deal. Also it costs to just give birth there. My sister is self employed and can't afford to pay health insurance and her dh just quit his job with benefits to work as a therapist without benefits. Without insurance it costs about 12 grand to give birth so they literally can't afford to have a 2nd child!

I never thought of that Thumb, yes that is sensible. I'm useless, never think of dangers, always think in terms of best case scenarios.

AandO, you're not useless! Not at all. It's just outside your experience.

Poor DS. He's asleep on my bed, propped up on pillows, and his poor nose is so stuffy he's breathing through his mouth and then coughing. I stocked up on children's cold medication this afternoon, now it's just a matter of getting him to take it. If it even looks like a medication bottle, he won't take it, he starts crying. You'd think we'd force-fed him battery acid at some point...

Maternity leave in Canada is a year long. IF you work for a company. If you're self-employed, you're out of luck. You'll have to save up beforehand and stay off work as long as you can afford. I was off for three months after having Jackbaby and then went back to work two days a week. Now I work two full days and a half-day on Saturdays.

Any wine going? In RL, I am not currently buying any. Because if I have wine in the house, I'll drink it. DH and I were talking about this recently. Of course we're not alcoholics. Neither one of us ever gets drunk (well, I don't -- he's been known to get harmlessly tiddly hanging out with his buds). But both of us could easily have some form of alcohol most nights - a drink when home from work, a glass of wine for me while cooking, that sort of thing. And we started to wonder if that's normal or healthy, that after a full day of work or once the kiddo is in bed (depending which one of us worked and which one stayed home) we're both sat there thinking, "I'd love a glass of wine." No big deal if none is around. But we were wondering if that's normal, or what. So he said he wouldn't drink until the hockey play-offs start. And if he's not drinking, I'd feel like a lush swanning about with my glass of wine. And it's fine, but I still find, when I'm cooking, or chilling out with a book, that I'm thinking, "I'd quite like a glass of wine right now."

Honestly, folks, do we have a problem? Or what?

We used to do that, I mean drink wine every night. But I now unfortunately have an alcohol allergy, and miss wine loads !

A year maternity leave, wow, is that paid leave? In Ireland we get 6 months paid and can take 4 months unpaid. I took all of it, and was still a sobbing mess when I returned to work. Looking back I was no way ready to be apart from LittleO. But I kinda think that I was only ready to be away from him once I stopped breastfeeding - I think the hormones really affected me, I was a totally different person for a while there!

I didn't stop bf until mistlechick was 22mo - and he'd have quite happily continued with the then just one night, one-sided feed. However, I thought that it was time not to do it anymore and we started having a cuddle and a book instead. So its a good thing that I managed to go back to work happily before then! (Mind you, if the tbeen linked I would have ended up stopping bf much earlier I'm sorry to say). I think I quite surprised some people at work as I was SO ready to come back part time when ds was 6mo. It went from a chore (Oh no, ANOTHER day with ds, what shall we do once we've walked the dog) to a pleasure (Today we need to walk the dog early so that we can get to music class, then we've got swimming later, or go to a nearby House etc)

I've just started taking him to before-school club (30mins) as it makes all the difference to me getting in to work early - traffic better, easier to park etc and I hardly get a goodbye - although he is actually a very loving little boy.

My parents have bought him an 18" wheel bicycle for his birthday as, riding round Halfords, his knees were hitting the handlebars on the 16" one. The 18" one is Meant to suit 6 -8 yrs - he's not quite 5....

Grey, drizzle here. Anyone for a cup of hot chocolate and bowl of porridge this morning?