MN Little Italy 10

[francagoestohollywood]

Welcome, ciao, hello

bah i am not sure i believe the academic achievement argument tbh. if anything, it creates a 'fake" sense of superiority, as then you move into the real world and you discover that prejudices are alive and well etc... far better in my opinion to try and eradicate the prejudices in the first place, and encourage girls into science!

i think the single sex school thing is if anything a legacy of institutional sexism, as they don't want girls polluting their old boys' clubs and so segregate them into their own enclaves.

for us the private vs state is very much a real issue right now, we can at a stretch afford private and that's what everyone does in our area, because the state schools are really dire (well, let's call things by their name- they are not awful per se, but the children all come from the local high rise estates and they are either somali refugees or white working class, no middle class there, whcih of course is self-reinforcing). but tbh the only private school that i visited which i really loved was all girls- which is a bit , both in general terms and for my dd1 who is a big tomboy into dinosaurs etc. so i am trying the catholic card and hoping she gets into the very good RC school up the hill... will keep you posted....

I am not sure at the science bit. for what I remember from my school the best at math and science were girls (not me!). the boys were good in italian and philosophy. I never noticed any discrimination in that sense. the only discr was in terms of 'girls are brighter than boys, boys only think about playing, girls and smoking dope'. which hindered the boys a lot. but then again I had the witches scary old fashoned teachers. must go to hairsresser now. ciao

Blimey- how have you got to 16 pages in 2 days?

Have been awol as the PON whatsits are published on the web and all seem to have about 2 days to get your domanda in so am frantically photocopying CVs and getting dp to be postie-man......I bet all the raccomandati (people, not letters) will have got in there first...it seems like an open competition, but this is il sud.....

I watched ER too,(to dp's disgust) Where has lovely Luka gone? Is he coming back? Isn't Abby looking old?

Also cannot believe how many "proper" books you all read....I'm currently just on a gore and homicide fest, (NY resolution to read a "proper" book, followed by 2 trashy novels it's a 12 step programme....,

We only have a shower here, so don't have the important dilemma of rinsing or not...we just do.....(I'd love a bath, but we're on sea front and these flats were built for holiday makers only really so....)

LOL @ Brangelina... Did we go to the same school?

Single sex ed. is, on the whole, a red herring in terms of 'advantage' for girls: only a very few benefit academically from it (either the brainy ones, or the very timid), and the rest are at a disadvantage, because - and this I know is probably controversial - all the rest are obsessed with male attention. There were so many (for want of a better word ) slappers in my year at school.

And can you imagine a whole house-full (I went to boarding school) of girls synchronising their periods? Chuffing hell. It was a loony bin.

On the sleeping front, there is obviously no god, or if there is, s/he has a funny sense of humour: DD woke up at 2am, and wouldn't go back to sleep until 4am, and then was awake at 7.30 again...

Hello ladies,
I was indeed having somewhat of a RL... me and ds got home late yesterday night from his party and 1 hr later my db and sil arrived with pizza from our local pizzeria (which is quite good for Milanese standards).

The children went to bed quite late at 10, but ds fell asleep immediately (after having my brother telling him stories of dragon ball - my brother is an expert of Japanese manga. I'd like to state that ds has never watched an episode of Dragon ball but obviously knows everything about it...) and ds slept until 8 o'clock. He is mattiniero.

Pippi about scandinavian literature: people rave about Stig Larsson, but it is a giallo (very long)

As for Sahm/wohm debates, I always find myself agreeing with the working mothers. I think on MN there is this deterministic view about parents "being the best" which grates me. This saccarine idealization of the pre school years being the "best" (why? 7 years old can be lovely too) and childcare bashing. And last but not least the justifying of working mothers/parents only "when they need to", as if working because you want to, enjoy it or simply want more money coming in, was morally wrong.
Having said I've always been a sahm, but not through choice (and I agree with Pippi on the validity of personal choices, and the silliness of bashing other people's choices) really, which is probably why I don't find being one better than having been a f/t working person. Booooh. sorry for the rant, I don't really know exactly what I was trying to say.

I agree with BS on gender schools.

Yesterday at the party I chatted with many mothers of ds's schoolmates and I noticed how much more relaxed people are about schools/reading/performing at 6 yrs old. Yuppie!

Penthe, here is a cup of strong coffee for you!

I'd have died in an all girls school. Not because I was particularly sexual in my teenage years (I wasn't at all ), but because lots of my dearest friends were boys. I think I laughed so much in my years of Liceo. We were a group of 8/10 boys and girls very close in our tastes, political views etc, we were very close (still are with most of them)

I'll have that coffee, thanks!

Agree about SAHM/WOHM debate.

Got to go - DD awake from 1st nap...

Oh god, after having skim read the titles on La Repubblica on line I feel I could move back to the UK tomorrow

yes! DD slept from 8.30 til 7!!! BUT DS woke up screaming and crying a few times (lost count) for other no reason, or for water (which is next to him) and joined us in bed this morning, so not real "sat morning" feeling.

Anyway, same sex school. I agree with BS. I went to a liceo where there were only 8 boys in 25 classes! one in mine, the brainy geeky one who I did medie with anyway, and when we went to our gita di 5a we were always with the boys of the other class, just to have more fun, nothing about fancying or hormones, but the girls in our class were real bitches, in fact I had hard time and if anything I achived below my potential as I was part of the "untouchables" (there was the brainy & mediocre quiet group, the lecchine group, and then the 4 of us, a bit opinionated, good potential but penalised for not being lecchine with the italian/latim/history prof). I'm sure if we'd had more males, the whole thing would have been different).

back to RL washing...

oh well done your dd

I have done a washing already [competitive ]

I went to an all girls school it was private and I always wished I had gone to the comprehensive. My main problem was that all the people from my area weent to the comp and I was at a school 30 mins away and girls went there from all over the country - so my best friend lived 40- 1 hr mins away and I needed somebody to take me to see her ! Mind you we had a largish house so I was always known as the posh one anyway . I watched Er last night as well minirosa fed at 11ish and then we had a fairly quiet night until 5 am with dd1 coughing and dh snoring / blowing his nose. Aqua Alta this am I went to a funeral ( not nice) and dh looked after the dds." loads of washing donw - house looks like a laundry as raining I must go and do ironing as the basket is full .....

Which series of ER is the Italian tv on?
I stopped watching it (in the UK) when Luka went back to Yugoslavia, it was too emotionally draining for me!

I've been stressing about the fear of being misunderstood in my post about the sahm/wohm.

What I meant is that often on mn the (perfectly valid and easy to empathize with) choice of being at home with your children is used to bash working women who are deemed as "selfish" or "unfit". That I don't find fair.

Luka seems to be back in Yugoslavia now, I think....I think it's the last ever series, but not sure....

Oh, the SAHM debate makes me spit. What I hate most of all is the "full time mum" expression. I always have to jump in then and quote a v g friend of mine who says that while she may work 4 days a week, she never stops being a full-time Mum thank you very much.

I'm also an unwilling SAHM, bonkers really as dd is out of the house 8 hrs a day this year, and here I sit on MN all day! Might change soon if I manage to bag one of these cushy PON contracts....I work in the UK on summer school and have to say I love it, makes me feel all valid and womanly again! And that hour on the train without a small person next to me, just me and my book, is heaven.

The last ever series ! at luka being away from Abby. They are a nice couple, despite her being an occasional pita!

(and despite her managing to qualify as a doctor in the space of an advert break on Raidue....)
I do like her. I loathe the one that Luka shagged briefly, used to have blonde streaks, has now gone dark brown, funny mouth.

whom? the nurse?

Actually i think that Abby has softened with motherhood... I loved that story line

Yes, the nurse...
I love any storyline with the lovely Luka in it really. How odd I've only ever heard his real voice in Ice Age! (never seen ER in the UK)

Oh I remember him since the Madonna video.
I can't watch series dubbed into Italian anymore, and I suffer at the cinema too. Apparently Brangelina prefers hers dubbed and she was really disappointed by Clooney's voice

What Madonna video? Quick- I need to YouTube!
I don't get Clooney, he just leaves me "meh".

here buch

omg he was young!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dio this thread fills up quickly!

Franca - thank you so, so much for the Pimpa dvd and book. We've watched the dvd twice already since it arrived yesterday (the snow meant no post - or bin colection [stinky emoticon])

Off for a Japanese lunch!

MM

Glad you got it safely MM

Agree with Rosa the pita of going to a private school when everyone else in the arera went to the local comp. All my friend were miles away in all directions and I had no local friends at all. Agree also re the slapper element, after all, I was one (albeit with a "posh" accent). I'm not sure about the helping girls excel at science being a red herring, but then our school was particular in that it was a centre for excellence for the sciences in general so would probably have been the exception rather than the rule.

Re the promoting instutional sexism, I'm not sure I agree there. Not having been subjected to sexism in my formative years I didn't accept it once in the real world and challenged any inference of male superiority. Quite a few of my fellow pupils have succeeded in male dominated industries, including myself, but then that could have been the peculiarity of the school. I'm not sure I'd send DD to an all girls school but that's more to do with the fact that out here it really would be all casa e chiesa, my school, depsite being Catholic, was very geared to individual success and we were definitely not encouraged to become homemakers and have lots of babies.

Blimey what an essay. I hope it makes sense, DD keeps interrupting so I've probably written gobbledigook.

Bucharest, I no longer read proper lit, most of mine is crime and thrillers nowadays. Not having much time I need page turners or I'd never finish a book. Anything truly literary was pre DD. Good luck with your PON application.

I can't bear any American series in original language these days. No longer being attuned to them, I find American voices to be irritatingly squeaky and twangy, the Italian dubbed voices are so much nicer.

I second what someone said re the Indian authors, the language is rich, colourful and at time anachronisitic in style, which imo makes for beautiful prose. S. American writers I couldn't get into, but then I haven't read a wide selection and maybe the translation doesn't work so well in English. Or maybe (probably) it's just me.

I have contected an old boyf on Facebook, I'm not certain it was a wise move.