The CRESH Creche and Spa - What's your excuse for not going back to work?

[Backinthebox]

Liking maternity leave too much? Can't be arsed to go back to your old job? Why not get made redundant, set up a company, have another baybee or even fall off a horse? Anything to spend more time with our little darlings! And it's so naice here - pass the gin!

I had smallboo on my back for half an hour in the ergo Okes (and half an hour on the way back). I carry on my shoulders at times and it's a killer after ten minutes, but the Ergo is just hamazing and it takes most of the weight, and makes sure I'm carrying it in the right place. See my Facecrack pics of my brithday walk. Is the babyhawk similar to the Ergo Box?

Hmm after lurking on natural mamas I am tempted to try and make a mei tai. There are loads of patterns and I have some sturdy curtain fabric I think would be suitable.

I've got a sling someone made from some nice IKEA fabric - in a hotsling design. It is ace. I used it until he was 5 months ish and my Auntie bought me the Ergo (and saved my back) I bet you could make a stonking Mei-Tai Sprock.

Okes I have carried TT a few times when she has been really tired or upset and I have just a small buggy without the buggy board with me and LG is asleep. The Babyhawk spreads the weight and carries her easily, yes she is heavy but much easier to carry if you are going to have to stagger along with nearly 3 stone of small child anyway! Boo the Babyhawk is a much smaller, softer carrier than the Ergo, but carries the baby in the same way. I reckon the Ergo looks as though it would be better if you used it as your main way of getting your baby out and about, and the Babyhawk better as a back up to a pram - it fits into a bag easily. Rocket, there are loads of Mei Tai patterns out there, and you could make one, I'm sure. A friend of mine made 2. The fabric needs to be sturdy, but you also need to make sure the straps are triple stitched at least. If I started making mei tais I'd never stop, I'd have hundreds of them to go with whatever I am wearing. Have a google for Simply Mei Tais - there are some fab ones on there with pixie hoods and applique and shiz.

Anyway. Here I am, home by myself with the kids. It's past bedtime, LG has a temperature and TT is jumping on beanbags, one of which has split and it losing polystyrene beans all over the living room floor. LG is eating them and wailing - he should be in bed, and I can't get him there. OH is not back from the cricket yet.....

hi all, if any of you are on facebook could you please visit this page and post your memories on it - it is not a scam, if they get 1 million memories then Disney will donate £1million to Great Ormond Street. A friend of ours has a boy who has been treated there recently, sadly they will not be able to save his life but this money could help them to save others x

www.facebook.com/disneyjunioruk?sk=app_193408584044874

Fuck off eh?

Errrm actually Disney won't. FACT.

It is actually a genuine fundraising thing. honest it's official

Although Looopy it would make more sense to start a thread in Chat rather than post here. There's not that many of us, I don't think we can get it to a million. There's a lot of people over in Chat though. Squillions.

Disney have been supporting GOSH for 3 years and if you google it you will see that lots of famous people have recorded or written their memories in support of this campaign.

i posted it here as i thought as it's an active thread and if everyone did it on facebook then maybe their friends would to and it could ripple out,

thanks muser, yes it is genuine and sadly so is the fact that her 18 month old little boy is dying and to make matters worse she is due to give birth in the next 2 weeks, i didn't think it would provoke this reaction from other mothers....

Then I take that back.

However, why don't Disney just donate regardless of any fb campaign?

(not that a new baby is a bad thing, but she is going through hell right now)

huh?

they donate a lot already, no idea why the campaign but i've done my memory, they still need about 990,000 and i hope enough people spread the word so that they reach the million. not intending to be on a soap box, just didn't think it would bother anyone if i mentioned it here seeing as it is for such a good cause. over and out.

No idea why people would be offended with Loopy posting this - isn't that the idea behind social media? I've just posted on their site.

Looopy obviously it is awful what your freind is going through however I complete agree with silvers comment. Disney Corp is worth billions of dollars, a million is nothing to them. They get enough advertising from the feature length adverts they make to sell their merchandise (toy story anyone?) sorry if this seems po faced but I have issues with companies such as Disney and McDonalds trying to make out they give a shit about sick children when they are just trying to promote their brand on the back of people like your friends pain. A million Facebook mentions is worth FAR more than a million pounds to them. What if everyone just donated a pound instead?

I'm sorry I don't agree. Great Ormond Street (and millions of other worthy charities) run fundraising campaigns the whole time and need big promotional vehicles for people to get behind and make the campaign visible. You could look at it like Disney is just a faceless corp, or you could see that Gt Ormond Street NEED to partner with people that are going to drive clicks and support.

Not offended moo just on a bit of a tangent re consumerism in light of recent events. The bloody McDonalds wing at out local children's hospital makes me spit feathers.

At the end of the day, ANY method that gets pounds into the right pockets is fine by me. Charities are massive (and often not very efficient or very well run) brands in themselves and need the support from whatever corner. Big companies that run community programmes and want to get involved can afford the marketing budgets, so why not? I think people are so blind to charity these days (annoying people in street etc) that it's good if anyone gives anything.

Ooh, what a time to pop back to the CRESH! I agree with honeymoney, while it's a bit galling to see hospitals and schools sponsored by big corporate giants, (and I really don't like McDonalds after the whole McLibel thing), so long as they don't actually feel the sick children Big Macs and send Ronald the clown in every lunchtime, then I think money from anywhere is a good thing. I'd rather spend ten minutes typing my memories on a website than dodging those students with clipboards, they make me really cross.

Well that would be true if Disney were offering to match public donations. But as it is they are just buying a million FB mentions for a pound each when they could have just donated the million to GOSH an shut up about it. There are always strings attached with corporations (murals of Ronald macdonald are all over the children ward so may as well be sending him round handing out burgers?l) which promotes the brand with their target audience ie children. (get em young and you have a consumer for life) a company that makes that much money out of children should be donating far more than that and asking for nothing in return IMO. anyway just have to agree to disagree.

It's a two way thing though. Charities benefit from big corporate sponsorship and giving in ways that aren't just about the cash. A big corporate can give you a million quid quietly and with no fanfare. But if a million people follow a link and learn about your charity, that's a million potential future donaters you have there. Who've found out you exist and may learn more about you and possibly start making regular donations. Or chuck some quids in the next collection box they see because they recognise the name.

I used to work for a charity. We would have LOVED a campaign like this for the exposure we'd get.

Yes it makes me spit a bit when I see Cadburys or Coca Cola sponsoring some get fit/stop being fat kids campaign. Like that somehow lets them off the hook for marketing junk at kids. But it is a more complex issue in some ways.

We live in a consumerist society - kids love burgers and cartoons and if that makes people put their hands in their pockets, so what? Why should Disney match pound for pound? Their company doesn't exist purely for charity purposes. Like many other businesses they are in it to make money! I should think GOSH just use their brand and they probably give it FOC which would normally cost zillions!

I was in our local hospital St Georges today, a really amazing teaching hospital that is facing cuts. They constantly have 'Give to St Georges' posters around the place but I bet they get fuck all. Their maternity services are under threat and people are losing their jobs. That's the economic reality. If bigger brands got involved in fundraising to reverse that fact - I really couldn't give a shit if Ronald Mc Donald was on the walls. Of course the ideal would be that they weren't, but that isn't the world we live in. People don't give to charity and organisations have to be very savvy to raise cash.

My previous job was working for CLDF (Children's Liver Disease Foundation). I worked with children and young people who had liver disease, and their families. There are three main hospitals that deal with liver disease in children in England and they are Kings in London, Leeds St James and Birmingham children's hospital. Most families that I met there didn't live close by. Often a child with liver disease will need a bed for a fair amount of time, and the parents will need a base. I don't like to get in bed with the devil either Sprocks but the Ronald McDonald Houses are an absolute Godsend for those families. And the families staying in the them don't give two shits about buying burgers, they just want their kids to get better. I think most people these days are media savvy - we know that the companies want us to think they 'care', but as long as they are prepared to spend some cash on something decent the I'm happy to play the game.

there is also the fact that most children love disney films and their characters - if they didn't then the disneyworlds wouldn't be a success and i bet most parents have bought their children at least one disney film - if you read the info that is on the GOSH website, Disney are raising £10 million towards new facilities, do premiers for the children, arrange for them to meet the disney characters and taken some on holidays. Whilst in an ideal fluffy world charities wouldn't need to resort to partnership deals, the fact is that they need money, and they are not getting enough from the government, or us the general public, or from any major UK company! and if my child ever had the need to be a patient, i wouldn't give a jot how the money had been raised.