MSE Parents Club Part 3

emlou2009

how did you go about it? did you go for baby rice first or jars or purees?

i've already got a stash of baby rice and those baby porridgey things ready, they were on offer lol!

Claire_Jones_3

elle_gee wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a book which lists all the milestone movements babies make? I know it'll probably have "average ages" in it but I don't want it for that - we've been told Rhys will probably be slower in his development - I just want to make sure I know what I'm looking out for. Would you believe, I do actually have a GCSE in Child Development but I can't remember the important stuff now!

Elle I have a book Called Child Development by Carolyn Meggitt which covers birth to 16yrs of age ISBN: 978-435420-48-2 which is really good. I found it cheapest from amazon I think. I've also written a project on child development (for my NVQ) if you wanted a read of it although it is about 40pages or so!

redmel1621

Em - Have PM'd you:D

cazscoob

feelinggood wrote: »

How easy is it to not wean before 6 months? If I let DS feed as long and as often as he wants, will that be enough for him?

charlie wasnt given anything until he was 6/7 months by that time i baby lead weaned but done it my own way. erin hasnt had anything yet and i will hold off as long as possible. however she is really grumpy all the time but am unsure if it is hunger or that she is just spoilt lol!

emlou2009

my friend was coming round to babysit tonight so me and OH could go to the cinema but she has now decided it will be better if we take seth to her she has a really annoying and disobediant dog that she keeps shouting at and it scares seth when she shouts which is why i wanted her to come here. OH has already agreed it, and she's really looking forward to it, and now i just dont want to go! i will be worrying about the stupid dog the whole time. i might have to fake a headache lol

cazscoob

at last we have some of this heat wave that you have all been talking about!!! no wind just lovely warm weather and here is me indoors trying to organise my house!
half day at school tom and then its the holidays!!!

awww emlou thats a shame! can you not go on about his routine and how much easier it would be at your house! (what were you going to see?)

SusanC_2

Just remembered another big expense for us is educational things - not so much now but it will be as we're home educating. [Edit: sounds like home educating might be cheaper as it avoids all the trend following etc although maybe Alice would be immune to it anyway like I was.]

Clothes haven't cost us that much yet as between what we get given by friends/freecycle we've not bought much and usually get what we do buy either in sales or charity shops.

MrsTine wrote: »

As for managing money better... if I managed our money any better it would be because someone worked out a way of transfering transactions and spending to my many spreadsheets by telekenesis so I didn't have to type it in LOL

Hi my name is MrsTine and I'm a financial control freak who's addicted to budget spreadsheets

Cool - I'm not he only one with loads of spreadsheets.

MrsTine wrote: »

emlou - in which case in your place I'd stay home too - it just bugs me that despite working blooming hard I can't get any help to stay home too! It annoys me no end when they go on about "9 out of 10 families qualify for WTC!" - yeah well not all of us do! and I doubt it's only 1 in 10 that don't to be honest!

*sigh* rant over

Do they mean WTC or CTC? You have to have an income below about 15.5k to get WTC and the median wage is about 28k. Even though we get tax credits I'd prefer it if they got rid of all the tax credits and subsidised nurseries etc and just charged us less tax. I reckon we'd all be better off as it would save loads of money on administering the whole scheme.

feelinggood wrote: »

How easy is it to not wean before 6 months? If I let DS feed as long and as often as he wants, will that be enough for him?

We didn't start weaning till 7 months and did BLW so Alice didn't actually start consuming stuff till 10 months. I found it quite easy - Alice was obviously satisfied by the milk so there was no need to rush things. I also didn't have any pressure from anyone else to wean sooner. Every baby is different though. I have a friend who's first was born when the advice was 4 months (well officially it was actually 4-6 but the HV told her she should start at 4) and she had terrible trouble getting her child to eat solids and had loads of hassle from the HV about it. She reckons she would have been better off waiting till 6 motnhs. By the most recent the advice had changed to 6 months but she started at 4 because he just wasn't getting enough milk and his weight was an issue and had loads of hassle from the HV about how she shouldn't be giving solids until 6 months.

3onitsway

I've just been in Mothercare, and they have loads of maternity and feeding bras reduced - mostly in bigger sizes (E, F, G, H) although still some C's and D's.

I just got a pretty feeding one, white with red polka dots one for £8. (pretty and feeding don't normally go in the same sentence!)

cazscoob

http://www.groovystyle.co.uk/productpages/phil-and-teds/sport-spares.htm

link for all the P&T ladies who may need spares or even replacement covers pmsl:P for their prams!

Savvy_Sue

3onitsway wrote: »

Lucky for you lot, we don't appear on webcam. I'm sitting here in my bra and pants - its tooo hot! :eek:

:rotfl:That's NOTHING, I had DH in a sarong last night, and it wasn't a long one either! :rotfl:

weezl74 wrote: »

I'd love others thoughts on what people have found the expensive part of having children to be...

My thought is that you have to distinguish between what you can make economies on, and what you can't.

Childcare is one of the can'ts. If you need it, you can look around and see what's available, but you can't just head for the cheapest.

As they get older, you can definitely try to instill the MSE mindset into them: if you buy that game now, it will cost you £35. If you wait a month, you will find it pre-owned, and you can have two or more. Plus if you trade in the games you're not playing any more, it may not cost anything!

Clothes and uniforms you probably need to buy new as they start to wear them out, but it's worth looking around: if the school does a second hand shop you may pick up nearly new items that a child has just outgrown too fast. If your offspring join a uniformed youth group, ask if there is second hand kit available, because they very rarely wear that out (in DS2's case, I think he wore his Explorer shirt half a dozen times in all!)

We bought car seats new, but I think everything else was second hand, or bought for us!

And I guess I was fortunate, in that DS1 and DS2 really don't like 'brands' and are much happier in jog bottoms and t-shirts, and DS3 wears cheap jeans. They all buy their own t-shirts now because I don't know what they will like, although DS2 was wearing "My mum says I'm cool" yesterday, which I saw in a charity shop and couldn't resist! :rotfl: