Iona tells me she sometimes just starts typing and waits to see what comes out - today is the day to try it.
The husband rang last night to check I had successfully rescued the thesis. He was in news exchange mode - both of us just downloaded what had been happening for the last few days, then hung up. He gets particularly like that when he is stressed. I put it down to his maleness. Most of the women I know tend to download a lot of emotions repeatedly when they are stressed. Men download the facts. Just the facts. And this one then rushes back to solving the problem. In this case having to produce multiple presentations for the final week of his course.
This is my final week being on my own. Husband will return either Friday night or Saturday morning depending on how tired he is. And the sprogletto returns on Monday morning on the aeroplane, his first experience of Cscious flying. And he is doing it with strangers! Its nice having such a Cfident and self-assured kid cos I can take him places and he likes new experiences. But I worry sometimes about him wandering off with just anyone. I'm sure he would. Still its not strangers who do the majority of horrible things to kids, its family and friends.
The survey that puts NZ near the bottom of the pile for treatment of its children is interesting when people try to figure out why. There is the predominance of sunny Mediterranean countries that don't kill their kids - is it the weather? But no, Portugal also doesn't do well. Italians don't have many kids (1.8 per woman) and so others have suggested it is a case of cherishing the rare, or the lower financial stress of having fewer children. An article in the Herald today on the editorial pages written by a researcher suggested home visiting and family support was critical, and that since the UK put money into post-natal visiting and support they had actually CHANGED THEIR FIGURES. Bloody rare that. We have a policy document floating round our government at the moment that talks of eliminating child poverty. No budget, No timeline, and No body taking responsibility. Its a platitude. And kids will die of it.
Iona was right - just typing produces words!
Posted by Toni at September 25, 2003 11:48 AMInterestingly, one of the few things that actually makes a difference to children's outcomes is pre-school. But we pay our pre-school teachers sod all. :(
Posted by: .carla at September 25, 2003 08:11 PM