make do and mend for tougher times

Mrs_Chip

Would you mind PMing me too Possession? I would love to see your recipes!

Possession

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Would you mind PMing me too Possession? I would love to see your recipes!

Happily, all done. : )

VJsmum

Evening all

I am not quite sure what you do with pinterest. I registered last week but that's as far as it got - how does it work?

I have been in a conference today - usually my day off but it makes up for some of the (non) working at home days. I have to go again tomorrow as it's open day. I don't mind really, it's part of the flexibility of the job. Also the plasterer is back tomorrow so i will be glad to be out of it.

DD has had her first week of 6th form free from tears, tantrums and walk outs. Break out the celebratory custard :T

Possession

VJ's Mum, think of Pinterest as your pin board. So you can both search it for interesting stuff and repin them, or when you see something online you'd like to remember you can pin it onto one of your boards (think it's called Add Pin or something). Shall I PM you my Pinterest page so you can have a look? I don't have many boards, but some of them are relatively full.
Good news about DD. Although I'm not sure about the custard.

SpikyHedgehog

Tawny75 wrote: »

I absolutely could not agree more, I have Guides who when I take them on Guide camp for the first time at 10 have never and I mean never played out in the street or unsupervised.

My daughter and I were in the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon few weeks ago and we were at the till and she asked if she could walk home as she fancied a walk. It is about 2 miles along main town roads so I said of course she could. The cashier was horrified and said there would be no way she would let her 16 year old daughter walk through town on her own! My K is 13 but looks older but even so. I actually stood there with my mouth open, I could not believe that she did not let her 16 year old out through town on her own.

When DS1 started walking to school on his own, I had other parents saying to me that they couldn't let their child walk to school without an adult, despite having a much shorter journey. But they weren't going to be taking them to school when they started high school - I just couldn't understand why they wouldn't start to get their child to develop independence.

valk_scot wrote: »

I had a nice experience last night. My OH gone out and about an hour later the buzzer sounded upstairs. Voice muttered "...your keys..." so I went downstairs to the main door, which opens right out onto the quite busy street. And in the lock of the door hung my OHs keys and in front of the door stood a large and menacing person of the genus Ned, a Scottish Hoodie/Oik/scarey teenage bloke of the kind you instinctively don't look at on the street in case he asks you who you're looking at?

Anyway he told me he'd seen the keys in the door, thought it wasn't a good idea because there were "bad lads" around and buzzed up. I expressed my gratitude, my opinion of my numpty OH and said I was much obliged to said Ned, who gave me a quite extraordinarily bashful grin, shuffled his feet a bit and melted off into the darkness.

I related this to my OH when he came in who, after suitable grovelling over being a numpty, said the boy couldn't have actually been a Ned after all but a decent upright citizen with a degree of social responsibility. Which is absolutely true, we're far too quick to judge by appearences, myself included. Anyway, I was thinking about it today and I must say it makes me feel a bit better about the world in general. There are bad lads of course but they're not all bad.

I was talking to an older friend a couple of years ago, who was rather found of jumping to conclusions about people based on their appearance and I told her there'd been a bunch of teenagers setting fire to things in the nearby woods :eek:. After she'd said how dreadful, I broke the news it was DS1 & his Explorer Scout unit practising fire starting skills in a controlled situation :cool:.

Byatt wrote: »

Totally agree Val, and thought I was saying the same thing, but obviously not. Sometimes I feel I'm talking a foreign language on here.

You did say the same thing Byatt.

fuddle wrote: »

My eldest is 8 now and only just learning, with me right there, how to cross a road. Other children in her class are crossing main roads and walking to school without their parents. For me, this is not acceptable for my daugher/for me but I understand that I do have to let her go albeit at a pace that is comfortable for me and safe for her. I'm now at the stage where i'll stand with her to cross the road outside of school, allow her to decide when it's safe to do so (with me there in case it's not) then she walks along to school with me watching until she walks through the school gates. I will continue to do this for the rest of the year, when she's in year 4 I will then gradually allow her to walk more and more of the way herself.

I'm not in the wrong for what I do as much as the parents who allow their 8 year olds to walk through the village unaccompanied are not in the wrong. It's wholly personal to a parent and their circumstances. I am lucky in that I am at home with my children, other mums have to leave for work etc.

I have always said DD will have a mobile phone when she is 11 and goes to comprehensive school. That brings other issues though, as in working for her credit to use personally along with making sure there's always credit available for emergencies. How do you deal with that one?

Byatt you did say the same thing yesterday. You were the one I resonated with because you were so worried about your DD, had experiences in the past but knew you had to let your DD go, done in a controlled way for her sake. I think that's what I'm doing, I just have to take very baby steps x

More banking customers can't access their money this afternoon. I still don't have any cash, always use my card to pay but seriously, I'm keeping cash in doors now because this just beggars belief

Fuddle, DS1 has had phones on pay as you go since he started high school, but I've recently moved him across to a contract where I pay a certain amount each month for a child account that he cannot run up huge bills on but does have unlimited texts and internet, and 75 minutes of calls - remember, he's 16 and all his friends communicate by text - and he does have the bulk of the cost of this deducted from pocket money I would have given him. It's not the cheapest option, before he was using his phone to communicate with friends I was topping up by £5 every 3 or 4 months. Until he started texting all the time...

There are options for phones for children on pay as you go where you can nominate certain numbers (ie, your home number or own mobile number) to have 'free' calls to so the child only uses the top up to pay for any other calls/texts/downloading music to the phone... Or my parents have a scheme with a phone company where they pay a small amount each month and have various mobile numbers with that phone company that can all make 'free' calls to each other.

Most of the phone providers do their own thing that's good for parents and children, but don't advertise these as they're not the things that get much profit... So when she's old enough, go in the shops and ask what they can do.

Most of the high schools in the town we live in say 'No mobile phones!', but DS1's old high school (where I hope DS2 will go) is a country school, and says 'We know mobiles are a good way to stay in touch with you, but they need to be off in lessons'.

fuddle wrote: »

It's LloydsTSB, Coop and Halifax this time Byatt.

Pants... I hope I can in the morning... And yes, I should keep more cash in the house. I've enough for needs tomorrow, but we're going out in the afternoon to a thing I'd like some cash for. There was a message about planned work on LTSB website today though, so hoping that was what affected it...

VJsmum

Possession wrote: »

VJ's Mum, think of Pinterest as your pin board. So you can both search it for interesting stuff and repin them, or when you see something online you'd like to remember you can pin it onto one of your boards (think it's called Add Pin or something). Shall I PM you my Pinterest page so you can have a look? I don't have many boards, but some of them are relatively full.
Good news about DD. Although I'm not sure about the custard.

ooh yes please

Popperwell

I've never seen that site before...

Money doesn't go far does it? I bought some milk, a cheap smoothie(I could not make it myself for any less)a got some strawberries and blackberries which will last for a few meals if added but that still came out at around £6.

I can do cheap meals(The other day I got carrots/onions/parsnip and turnip for £1)and have made three meals from it and stiill have some for another meal but we should have some fruit in our diet.

Popperwell

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

I was talking to an older friend a couple of years ago, who was rather found of jumping to conclusions about people based on their appearance

So a lot of this goes on, people assume so much. How someone looks. Likewise, people think they know how someone lives but don't know an individuals circumstances and go on gossip or anecdotal evidence.

Thankfully on our thread many are tolerant and less likely to condemn/judge others. On another site talking about some work scheme happening in the Netherlands where they work for their benefits has seen some horrible comments and assumptions made with all the usual derogatory terms and calling of people who are having to take help and tarring everyone with the same brush.

katieowl_2

Oooooh Possession! My saved recipes and ideas list has just grown Thank you!!!

Kate

katieowl_2

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

There are options for phones for children on pay as you go where you can nominate certain numbers (ie, your home number or own mobile number) to have 'free' calls to so the child only uses the top up to pay for any other calls/texts/downloading music to the phone... Or my parents have a scheme with a phone company where they pay a small amount each month and have various mobile numbers with that phone company that can all make 'free' calls to each other.

Most of the phone providers do their own thing that's good for parents and children, but don't advertise these as they're not the things that get much profit... So when she's old enough, go in the shops and ask what they can do.

Ah, you reminded me that yesterday I was going to write that Mr T mobiles do Ping a pound, DS is allowed to 'ping' a pound a day off my pay as you go mobile balance, so that he can make phonecalls. (Usually to me for a lift LOL!) It's been an absolute godsend for him. I've got DS and OH signed up to it, as I always have credit and they don't. Like you say I've not seen it advertised recently, but it must still be running cos' he used it the other day.

Kate