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!

Sorry, only skimmed last few posts so am not commenting.

Just wanted to say a big thanks, especially to Silver & Okie for replies re eczema. Currently using Oilatum for bath & mixture of Oilatum & Hydromol creams (all prescribed by GP). Was a bit about steroid cream straight away. Someone else has also mentioned Aveeno & doublebase. So I shall work my way through. Many thanks again.

Moo don't get me wrong. I am not criticising the charities for getting in bed with the likes of Disney, I am lamenting the 'consumerist society' which makes it necessary. Isn't it a little disingenuous to say 'oh that's just the way the world works' and go along with it?

I didn't mean they should match donations, I was just using that as an example as opposed to the FB thing. But yes I see your point that they are allowing their brand to be used FOC to raise a charities profile and muses that donating it quietly would have less impact. Perhaps I am being overly cynical in assuming that Disney get the better deal, its not like they aren't already a household name.

Perhaps I'm getting old and cynical, but I've done my bit of time helping in a charity fundraising dept.s, and I've also served more time than I'd like to with a child in GOSH, and I tend to agree with Silva & Rocket that they could do this without using it as a means of getting free advertising. From my (albeit limited) experience, I didn't get the impression GOSH is as strapped for cash as other hospitals probably are - we spent some time on a shiny new wing where every ward sported a plaque naming some City/celeb sponsor. It's the small local hospitals that need that sort of support, but they don't have the brand recognition that GOSH can offer. It does amazing work, so I don't think any government would ever want to put the kind of medical expertise it can offer at risk. Much of the charity work these companies do is so that they can tick a sufficient no. of boxes to get their shares listed on the FTSE4Good list and meet corporate social responsibility targets. They're going to do it anyways, then why not also maximise the marketing potential? Yep. I'm a cynic. So I'll shut up now.

Laurilou Oilatum worked for us. Squib's skin cleared up after a couple of months. He currently seems to be sporting pimples. Am hoping it's heat rash.

I don't think I am being disingenuous, I'm being a realist. So you don't own any designer labels Rocket? Nor are you going to let your children watch Disney movies at some point? I think people are being idealist and simplistic in the extreme if they think big companies getting involved in charity is a bad thing. Does all charity work have to be done by bleeding heart liberals?! Nonsense. If we can use the economy as a force for change and yes even investors choose ftse4good listed companies why is that bad? Sick children benefit! I just don't get it. Yes there is a marketing element but that is far outweighed by the end benefit. The scale of change can be far greater this way than by some cash strapped hospital who does not have the budget or resources to employ marketing and Pr directors and teams with private sector contacts. At the moment maternity services are being shut around the country! I think priorities are elsewhere. It might not be the nicey nicey charity ideal but this is the state of our economy and I think it's naive to think otherwise.

I don't stick my neck out very often but raising money for sick children is very important as I'm sure we would all agree and I hate to see people moaning about what is a very worthwhile cause just because it offends their sensibilities.

Not sure what me owning designer labels has got to do with it? (although I don't own many) as an adult I make the decision to spend my money on what I like. Honestly? the jury is still out whether I will be showing Sprout Disney films, if they hadn't bought Pixar then quite possibly not. And I am not saying big business should not be involved with charity work, of course they should. I just don't think they should then be allowed to brand children's wards with their product. Sick children would still benefit but the company wouldn't, that is supposed to be what 'charity' is. It is this kind of marketing towards children that has ended up with 12 year old kids looting to order (ok this might seem like a leap but its a symptom of the same disease) I am not being naive, I know this is the way the world works. I just don't have to like it or join in. If I want to help GOSH I will donate some money to them, I think that would be far more helpful than posting on my FB page, this is just an easy way of people thinking they have done something good instead of actually donating or getting off their arses and raising money.

Golly! Have just caught up with thread. I think I agree with lighter.

One question though - does this Looopy person drop in and post random things simply because we are an active conversation? Isn't that a bit weird?

Disney will invade your life at some point if you have children. You will be powerless to stop it! Believe me, I am fairly strong willed on the whole Disney thing, but right at the moment my life is filled from morning till night with Lightning McQueen and Bambi. TT loves the Cars film, and someone bought her the Bambi DVD for her birthday. The day after she watched it for the first time we pulled out of our drive to see a large antlered stag with a doe and twins standing in the road, and she is now convinced it was a grown up Bambi with his wife and their children and is on the lookout for them all the time. She was also given Disney Princess and Disney Fairy stuff by the bucketful for birthday presents as she had a fairy princess themed birthday party, inspired more by Ben and Holly than by Disney. But she didn't get any Ben and Holly branded presents.

Wrt the fundraising, if people are inspired by it and want to do it, fine. But there shouldn't be any pressure. I can't stand high pressure charity drives. Many people give in their own way, and however much is given, it will never be enough for the most tragic cases. I give a regular amount to an African child sponsorship scheme, and will be increasing that to sponsor a second child when I go back to work. (Plus I have a standing order for the Air Ambulance, but I see that more as insurance. ) I am happy with what I do - I see a regular predictable amount as being very useful to charities, even if it is also nice to see a big one off payment too.

Now to the more important issue of the morning. We are waiting to take LG to the doctors. For the third night in a row he has woken with a very high temperature in the night (40.5 last night) and he was screaming and arching his back about 4 hours ago. Now his temperature is 35.5 which seems a little on the low side and he is sleeping - normally he is awake and giggling by 6.30am. I fear he definitely has his father's constitution.

Oh no box, I hope LG is OK. That sounds like more than man flu.

Oh, and sadly amusing story of the weekend - we went to the christening of a little girl, and OH was to do a reading. I was telling TT we would be going to church for XXX's christening and Daddy would be doing a reading, and TT burst into tears and said 'But XXX is my friend!' We are not big churchgoers, and last time we went to church, and the only time she has seen Daddy do a reading, was when Grandma died. She took a bit of calming down...

fanjo see I thought this loooopy was another scam click on this link type thang and get a virus hence my post!

Someone on another thread just called me FannyPrincess!

laurie We use Oilatum in the bath and Cetraben liberally slooshed around twice a day. GP is trying to get us to use the steroid cream on the very angry patches but I keep holding back.

I may try some of the other creams mentioned too. Is hydromol just an aqueous cream? I might try Aveeno too as we had some luck in NZ with a really brilliant oat based bath lotion (Curash) which we found we can't buy here.

I tried the oat thing - someone told me you just put porridge oats in a sock and lob said sock in bath. Tried it a couple of times, but kept forgetting to dispose of sock contents afterwards for a few days...which was a little...er...messy.

I guess it really boils down to whether we think good hospitals should be paid for by the state, with all its inefficiencies and bureaucracy, or whether we think, like Mr Cameron, that "society" should do more voluntarily, in the form of donations from individuals who want to feel good about ourselves, and companies, which require that their generosity is recompensed in the form of free advertising, which is basically what the FB campain is all about. All this intense debate about how we should pay for our hospitals has reminded me to pull my finger out and send some dosh to the hossie that saved Squib's live. Have the form sitting around like, foreva.

Fuck me! Guess what alps just made me do? I am now a member.

But please be patient with me as I don't actually have a clue how Facebum works yet, still need to sort out a profile, etc.

Hurray Fanny! I think I have just tried to befriend you. (interesting name!)

it must be a day for new things, I have just bought a proper modern phone with internet and all.

Aha - it's you FP...I did wonder!!!

Hope the boy's OK Box and you're not angling for another convenient escape from our iminent camping weekend

Yes, the PP person is me.

cluckbox Are you two going camping again? What gives?

Mind you, MrP and I challenged each other to a speed tent erection challenge last night. 7.5 minutes from sitting on the sofa to being inside the tent naked.

Can I admit that I am feeling completely thick on that Faceboak thingummy? I have no idea how it works. It's like joining MN but 20 x more complicated. I can only hope that I'll get the hang of it and catch up with you young whizz kids eventually.

Poor LG hope he's better today Box.

Fanny your name is most excellent - I have name envy!!!!!

Yesterday we ended up in A&E due to weird rash that came up in an hour. I didn't think it was blanching, but when we got there it was and apparently was the end of a virus. So maybe night waking was actually the virus... who knows. Anyway babymoo back to normal sleep last night thank god.

Have been in to "work" this morning to be unsurprisingly told I can't do 3 days and even 4 is a push. the account they would want me to work on I would rather burn all my own hair off than work on. So that is that, I will be handing notice in next week and getting on with plan B as the intention has been for the last 6 months! Relieved to say the least. Also don't have to pay back additional leave so even more relieved about that!

Whether we all agree or not on the politics of fundraising, the fact remains that hospitals are direly underfunded (individual donations are not enough) and the only people that suffer are the people that really need it. Any solution to that is sorely needed and a good thing. The rest doesn't matter. I also think linking marketing to children and riots is a bit of a stretch. Kids rioting is down to social inequality, lack of education and not having any stake in society. Looting is not exactly a modern phenomenon! Nor were they looting toyshops!

Hang on FP, we didn't get camping last month due to me getting my big-horse-big-kicks and little-horse-little-kicks mixed up, so this is Camping Pt II, The Toasted Marshmallows' Revenge! OH is having to come up with increasingly elaborate excuses for not going though.

LG is OK, he has a cold (manflu, just like his father) and has got an infected ear. Give him enough Calpol though, and he's a happy bunny again. Now he has antibiotics too. Good job he likes taking his medicine. If it was his big sister we'd be spending most of the hours in the day trying to coax her to take it.

FP that isn't your name, I'm gutted...

we were camping again this weekend and most excellent it was too.

I also found out that it is under 2 hours for me to get to where you met last week so please to be arranging another eshmeet on a weekend???

honey I wish it was though. I begged MrP to let me give Bonnie a name very similar to that one. He said no, she would sound like a super hero's girlfriend and be laughed at. I so disagree!

Cluck is fond of her alliterative names

Today I have done something Very Useful; all the unnecessary boy birds I seem to have accumulated this year are booked into the local cockerel holiday home (AKA the big chicken pie in the sky!) Yum - we will be eating home grown chicken from now till Christmas. And when it gets to Christmas, the same nice man will 'look after' my turkeys for me. Which means me and Cluck won't have to get tanked on mulled wine and do the dirty work ourselves this year. We'll just have the mulled wine TT was a bit about eating them, but when it was pointed out to her that all meat comes from animals, and if she won't eat meat that just leaves the vegetables, she decided she was not yet ready to be vegetarian after all. Which is good in this house!

Ah that clears up a little bit of FB confusion on my part. FP of the many ingenious pseudonyms :o

Sorry to hear about the poorliness of LG and minimoo but glad it seems they are both bouncing back. We have the second round of injections tomorrow so I have calpol at the ready!

Going to leave the charity debate there as not sure we will ever agree! moo glad you are looking forward to plan B work wise and that you aren't going to have to pay back the leave, that must be a weight off and a relief to know what's going to happen next. Exciting times ahead!

And it looks like I might have made a baby friend. I popped into the baby club/BFing support clinic this morning and one of the mums lives on the next street from me. So we ended up having a brew in mine afterwards. They all seemed pretty friendly and although most of the babies are a good few months older than Sprout itll be nice to get to know some local mums. At least it was a distraction from TB going back to work today anyway.

Getting to know local mums is deffo a good thing Rocket. I met one who lives one street away from us at the baby bounce sessons in our local library. Unfortunately, now all baby activities seem to be on hold until the end of the school holidays, which makes finding stuff to do a bit of a pita at the mo. Don't really get why stuff for under 5s stops when school does...I guess they figure everyone with a young baby has older kids and therefore will be away for their hols.

On the subject of hols, we have booked the gite and train tickets and are all set for our 14 hour through the night drive to the south of France at the end of Sept . Am hoping it'll turn out to be quicker than that as there shouldn't be any traffic. Fingers crossed. How bad can it be, compared to getting up to feed a young baby, right?

In bottom news, Squib is all bunged up. Am going to apply prune puree and stand back. How much does one give? Am thinking a teaspoon's worth or so for starters...