Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

When we visit Bath we park at the Park & Ride to the North of the city. The journey down in the bus is the equivalent of most fairground rides I've been on. I hate to think how often clutches and brakes have to be replaced.

 

I know it's a very simple typo, but I laughed out loud at 'factulies'. Sorry!

 

I believe you can get a space on an NHS waiting list.

 

A child of 9 months should be in a home environment with a consistent care-giver, not in a day nursery. Children under 18 months do not need to socialise with multiple other children of the same age. That is not how their development works.

If a child's home environment is inadequate, that is different and care outside it for part or all of the day can be helpful.

Parents handing over responsibility for caring for their children due to the financial pressure to work can also suffer. Their bond with their youngster may affected and they may experience huge guilt.

Mass day-care is the cheap option compared to maternity pay, but it has its downsides.

 

Probably in the queue to get in the queue.

I did a rare thing this week. Tried to make an appt with my GP. Not seen one for 15 yrs. Anyway, I was advised no bookable appts are currently released (wondered if I had accidentally got through to the theatre box office ) and to try ringing again in a week or two!

 

They do that where I go, only release appointments at certain times, and only for a month ahead, so once all are taken you have to wait until they release more.

They also seem to want you to book online, I've tried that and you have to tell them why you want the appointment, then you get the times nobody wants.

 

I dunno what the answer is. I appreciate they can't magic extra hrs out of nowhere, but it is very much a postcode lottery. My sister can get a same day appt usually, and definitely one within 48 hrs.

 

Agree, don't some countries not have nursery's but pre school instead. I know in Thailand and other countries the school starting age is 6 and you can put them in pre-school or kindergarten which is what I would call them. It's not mandatory, but the government offers 2 years free in government schools for 3 and 4 year olds and 1 year for 5 year olds before they start what we call primary school at the age of 6 and stay at school until they are 18. Then they have the choice of college or uni depending on their exam results. If there are pre- schools for younger children, then there will be very few and I think the child will still need to have turned 2

 

I grew up half a mile from the nearest village and we had no street lights but your eyes got used to the dark and you could see the stars! When my Mum was elderly she got a security light. I lost count of the times I walked into the gate because it switched off when you were halfway down the path. My grandchildren have never slept anywhere it is totally dark.

 

Apologies for mentioning this, but may be relevant for people in, near or visiting.
"The main road into Cheltenham is totally closed from 1 September to mid December. Basically Christmas."

 

In Finland my generation (born 1970s) were often put into nurseries at age of a couple of months as industrialisation meant Mothers had a job and very little paid maternity leave. Childcare was free. Voluntary pre-school started at age of 5-6 and proper school a year after.

Then the economy improved and paid parental leave of absence was stretched to the current stage where parents can afford to stay home until the youngest is 3, meaning that older siblings often were cared for at home until school.

Both ways seem to have produced quite ok people, there is no marked difference called out.

Then again, kids in Finland have plenty of social contacts with other kids as it is more or less mandatory to play outdoors several hours a day, all seasons, all weather.

 

The nuclear family as a unit in which to bring up children is avery recent development of the last 100 to 200 years or so in industrialised countries. Before then people lived in multigenerational groupps alongside similar groups in other families so babies, children and old people all had "community" care and importance. Babies and children shared time and loving and learning with many people, not just parents and siblings.

Now that 99% of wealth is concentrated in 1% of the population it is even more important that babies, toddlers and children have shared care in a safe environment so their parents can work to put a roof over their heads and feed and clothe them and have time for family fun.

Belgium has universal pre-maternelle for every child from 30 months old. They can attend half day or all day. I sent Possum half days so she could be bilingual before infant school started at 6. There is breakfast club from 7am and after school club till 6:30 .which cost about 1€ a week when Possum went. In my village, the same people organised school holiday activities and care for kids aged 3 to 14 and older teenagers could help out, learning skills and adding to their CV so positive all round.

 

Visits to my elderly mother involve a trek down the M6. Highway department have now decided to ( partially) close a junction ) ( movement in one direction only) which we use coming back, to allow bridge repairs. No problem, one would think. A couple of weeks inconvenience, can manage that. However, the repairs will mean a closure of 4 years You can imagine the “ unhappiness “ of the town where all traffic is being redirected through. There is already a Keep junction….open on the go.

 

Until quite recently, it was normal for youngsters to be breastfed till they were about 2. Mothers, or a single substitute wet-nurse, were near at hand. Yes, family groups joined together, but that did not mean 18 toddlers spent the day in one room with 6 teenage nursery workers on minimum wage. It meant being around older children, young adults, grandparents, etc, from whom they learnt a huge amount.

In this country, children have never been valued by the state. In primary schools, having 30 eight yr olds (for example) educated together is not an ideal learning setting ... but it's cheap. Having 400 children rampaging round a concreted area for breaks (which, incidentally, are getting shorter and shorter) is not ideal ... but it's cheap.

Schooling as crowd control has led us to where we are - high rates of drop-out and functional illiteracy, poor skills and work readiness, loss of motivation and ambition. I am not blaming schools or teachers at all. They are trying their best but the obstacles are huge, and one of these is funding. (Others include austerity, poverty, a huge rise in children with additional needs, communities in collapse, the influence of social media, availability of stimulants and weapons, gang culture, etc, etc.)

 

In that case, I'll have all the money back that I paid in tax before I had my children [20 years of working] plus all the other things I paid for but didn't use....
I don't necessarily agree with the way people approach having children, and want them handed over to someone else the minute they have them, but if no one has children, where is the future work force coming from? The people in a hospital for example - that you may need in future.....

I'm beyond furious at this story. The justice system in this country needs to be renamed - because there isn't justice in so many cases.
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