men ancholy

There was a little boy in my life. He reached up to hold my hand. He was terrible at tying his shoe laces. His best friend at kinder was a girl named Alex. He played with matchbox cars.   We took a walk together down the bike track, close to the creek. He watched the trickles of water. Looked [...]

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Advertising. Media potty training for kids.

Was reading today about a group who have “shamed” companies such as MacDonalds, Kellogs and Krispy Kreme for using apparent “healthy” messages to promote their unhealthy products. It’s true. Many companies spotlight one aspect of their product, *low in fat* but make no mention of the seventeen spoonfuls of sugar per bite. It’s called marketing.  [...]

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Does he wash up?

  Driving the kids home from school lately is a chore. For at least a month there have been road works at a busy intersection I need to cross. At peak times it takes five or six turns of the traffic lights to get through. Annoying. Much. So this afternoon instead of watching the snails slime by [...]

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Important lessons in life

Last night our son left our loungeroom- upset with something his Dad had told him to do and stormed to his bedroom. He slammed his door so hard that the house rattled and a blast of his hormones assaulted us in the jetstream. Dad, not one for warnings, took his DS console, which son had left on [...]

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The Forbidden City: where it was possible to have hundreds of brothers and sisters.

Behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony is the largest courtyard of the Forbidden city. As some of our group, sweaty but determined, headed up the grand marble staircase I was distracted by a gathering of folk who seemed intent on trying to fan themselves while catching two wild children. These kids were slippery indeed. They [...]

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finding the right suitcase for camp

This afternoon we trolled through the garage (otherwise known as the repository for everything other than the car) looking for a case suitable for Miss 8’s impending camp. Her first camp. I finally found the one I was looking for, a snazzy-surfy one that her big brother had used on his first camp. I was elated. [...]

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…and all that jazz

According to my weeping daughter, who had flung herself across her bed, two girls, (count them fingers sticking up at me) two girls in her jazz ballet class got a grade higher than she did in her dance exam. I make her sit up. We wipe the trail of snot off her pillowcase and closely [...]

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I’m starving Mum… or… I’m pretty sure cheese needs refrigeration.

At exactly 3.27pm every week day I hear the same words whined at me from the back seat of our car. “I’m staaaarving Mum.”   No, you are not starving. Your bellies are plump and round from last night’s supper of chocolate teddy bear bickies and ding milk, not distended from years of malnutrition- the [...]

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Maths and Abba and Hair Brushes

Miss 8 just told me that my way of doing subtraction was ‘old fashioned.” On a piece of paper she jots down a two figure sum and proceeds to demonstrate the modern way of doing math.  “See Mummy’ she said, ‘makes more sense.” I need a cup of tea.   “Now can we practice my [...]

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The bully, the magic trick and the snub-face mum

Bully, verb: discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner Bullies really shit me. I feel like starting a gang of parents who (masked of course…and maybe even wearing capes if we could come up with the right shade) roam school yards protecting our kids from the terror they inflict. Pow to their arrogance. [...]

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