upset at nanny -- vent

Chookie wrote:

In article MtNXb.39969$jk2.88777@attbi_s53, Emily
wrote:


(One of the messiest things about my house these days are those
tupperwares... They're never truly clean because they're always
being played with, but we just use them anyway. *sigh*)


They can't be THAT dirty from just being played with on the floor!


And stepped in and ... not really what I'd consider clean enough
for food, at least in pre-baby standards! But then I keep reminding
myself that the higher incidence of asthma in developed countries
has been hypothesized to be related to excessive cleanliness ;-)

--
Emily
mom to Toby 5/1/02
#2 EDD 7/19/04

Chookie wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Elizabeth Reid) wrote:

He actually was handling being thwarted much better this weekend,
so it seems to sort of go in phases that have a lot to do with
how well he's sleeping/eating etc.

I think the amount of food and sleep toddlers get affects their temper
substantially. I am lucky in that DS still has a sleep every afternoon,
though he's about to turn 3. And I invariably notice a deterioration in
behaviour if he's not fed on time! Try increasing the size of his morning and
afternoon teas and see if he's less annoying as a result.

I feed him everything he'll eat; he's just kind of a diffident
eater. When he doesn't eat, he's frequently crankier, but it's
hard for me to be sure which is cause and which is effect, since
presumably something keeps him from eating on the low food days.

Well, Flylady.net is working for me. When DS was about 6 months old I
realised that I was just wandering randomly from one task to another, leaving
half of them undone, because I had total mummy brain. Hit the net, found
Flylady, and am now a lot closer to the Type 1 parents than I thought
possible! Going to work part-time hasn't changed that, either. Because my
mind has been freed from making mental notes about having to do various tasks,
I can concentrate more on enjoying my time with DS, and so perhaps I can be
more creative about involving him with necessary activities.

I tried Flylady and I liked the idea, but the constant emails were
making my life more difficult rather than less! I have the Sidetracked
Home Executives book, and I keep meaning to set up their system,
as soon as I can extract time from the rest of my life. :-)

I also have a reading enthusiast, and limit story-reading to brackets of
three, and also limit the number of times I reread a book in a day. Then we
get up and do something together. If you like, post about particular
activities you're finding difficult -- someone here is bound to have a way of
involving their children in it.

Cooking especially is hard, and generally everything to do with
the kitchen, because it involves messing around on the counters
where he's too little to see. He'd love to be involved, but the
logistics of it make it hard. I also worry about doing bathrooms
with him around because of the cleaning chemicals.

Beth

In article ,
(Elizabeth Reid) wrote:
Cooking especially is hard, and generally everything to do with
the kitchen, because it involves messing around on the counters
where he's too little to see. He'd love to be involved, but the
logistics of it make it hard.

For cooking, do you have a high chair or booster, so he can see what
you are doing? Maybe give him some related item to play with -
plastic containers, for instance. Or, can he stir dry ingredients
yet?

Irene

Elizabeth Reid wrote:

I have the
Sidetracked Home Executives book, and I keep meaning to set up their
system, as soon as I can extract time from the rest of my life. :-)

Sometimes setting up the system takes longer then doing the actual chores
;-)

Cooking especially is hard, and generally everything to do with
the kitchen, because it involves messing around on the counters
where he's too little to see.

I do the very bad mom move of sitting mine on the counter beside me. Luke
still sits up there (Hunter is big enough to stand on a stool). No one has
ever fell off or come close to getting injured in any other way so I keep
doing it.

I also worry about doing bathrooms
with him around because of the cleaning chemicals.

You mean the fumes? I'd just switch products and use something less smelly.

--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (2)

In article ,
(Elizabeth Reid) wrote:

I tried Flylady and I liked the idea, but the constant emails were
making my life more difficult rather than less!

Heh. Try getting the Go To Bed messages at 10am! SEriously, the idea is to
Delete, Delete, Delete -- it's not an all-or-nothing thing, it's a gradual
thing.

I have the Sidetracked
Home Executives book, and I keep meaning to set up their system,
as soon as I can extract time from the rest of my life. :-)

And we all know when that will be -- when you're in the nursing home!

Cooking especially is hard, and generally everything to do with
the kitchen, because it involves messing around on the counters
where he's too little to see. He'd love to be involved, but the
logistics of it make it hard.

You can take it two ways.
(a) Involvement -- child can help with the cooking. This IS very
age-dependent -- DS is almost 3 and can't really mix dry ingredients without
my hand on the spoon. I get him to count spoonfuls and cupfuls, taste-test
the dried apricots/choc chips etc, put muffin cases in muffin tins, that sort
of thing. He can also fetch and carry some items for me. As a result, DS
helps me mainly when I'm cooking fun stuff, not dinner.
(b) Working Alongside -- child is doing something else in the kitchen while
cooking is going on. DS's easel is set up in the kitchen, so he can do
something close to me while I use sharp knives/hot stoves. Another
alternative is a cupboard full of plastic bowls, tin trays, wooden spoons and
other fun but safe objects that your child can play with. Caution: watch
your own step as these objects will end up all over the floor!

I also worry about doing bathrooms
with him around because of the cleaning chemicals.

Same here; in fact I was much more worried about the cleaning chemicals than I
was about the original dirt. Sickness from E coli I can cope with; chemical
poisoning is another matter! You can guess from this that DS likes cleaning
the toilet. Soooo -- I switched to vinegar. I clean the loo first, then DS
takes charge of the toilet brush and can scrub away to his heart's content
while I clean elsewhere. Then I give him a damp rag and he "cleans" the front
of the vanity unit and the tiles.

HTH,

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Jeez; if only those Ancient Greek storytellers had known about the astonishing
creature that is the *Usenet hydra*: you cut off one head, and *a stupider one*
grows back..." -- MJ, cam.misc

Chookie wrote:

In article ,
(Elizabeth Reid) wrote:

Cooking especially is hard, and generally everything to do with
the kitchen, because it involves messing around on the counters
where he's too little to see. He'd love to be involved, but the
logistics of it make it hard.

You can take it two ways.
(a) Involvement -- child can help with the cooking. This IS very
age-dependent -- DS is almost 3 and can't really mix dry ingredients without
my hand on the spoon. I get him to count spoonfuls and cupfuls, taste-test
the dried apricots/choc chips etc, put muffin cases in muffin tins, that sort
of thing. He can also fetch and carry some items for me. As a result, DS
helps me mainly when I'm cooking fun stuff, not dinner.
(b) Working Alongside -- child is doing something else in the kitchen while
cooking is going on. DS's easel is set up in the kitchen, so he can do
something close to me while I use sharp knives/hot stoves. Another
alternative is a cupboard full of plastic bowls, tin trays, wooden spoons and
other fun but safe objects that your child can play with. Caution: watch
your own step as these objects will end up all over the floor!


When DD was 3, she showed me that she could actually crack an egg
without dropping any shells. So, she became the official egg cracker in
our house. I could also give her a plastic knife or a butter knife and
she could cut up a banana.

At 6, DH will help her flip pancakes when they're making them. I'll let
her scramble those wonderful eggs she cracked. She's also been using a
hand egg beater to mix up cake batter or pancake batter.


I also worry about doing bathrooms
with him around because of the cleaning chemicals.

Same here; in fact I was much more worried about the cleaning chemicals than I
was about the original dirt. Sickness from E coli I can cope with; chemical
poisoning is another matter! You can guess from this that DS likes cleaning
the toilet. Soooo -- I switched to vinegar. I clean the loo first, then DS
takes charge of the toilet brush and can scrub away to his heart's content
while I clean elsewhere. Then I give him a damp rag and he "cleans" the front
of the vanity unit and the tiles.


I did the same thing. I switched to mild detergents and let DD wipe the
counters. Also, I found out in her Montessori school that she *LIKED*
to wash windows with a squeegee and water. Guess what? A mirror's like
a window. Hand the kid a squeegee and a pail of water.

Jeanne

In article ,
Tine Andersen wrote:

mmm. I hear it's not really green. :*)

I'm not being judgemental - we have our issues here as well with Greenland.

-Liz

In article ,
melizabeth wrote:
"Tine Andersen" wrote in message
. dk...


snippage of cool post

We put the stroller with a sleeping child in front of a restaurant outside
the windows while we have lunch inside if we can sit next to the window
and
see the stroller. No problem. In New York a Danish woman doing so was put
in
prison some years ago and her completely breastfed baby taken from her for
four days. When the baby was returned she was very hoarse and hungry. My
whole country (okay - only 5 mill, but it's all we have) was in an uproar.

I remember that! It happened in NYC, I believe and I was living upstate at
the time. What a culture clash. Very unfortunate for the family. Is it
just Denmark that does this? I thought when I was in Norway and Sweden I
also saw this as well.

It was in NYC, I remember it too. It was a sad story all around, I didn't
remember the baby was breastfed, that wasn't so high in my conciousness at
the time. That poor baby

-Liz

"Liz S. Reynolds" wrote in message
...
In article ,
melizabeth wrote:
"Tine Andersen" wrote in message
. dk...


snippage of cool post

We put the stroller with a sleeping child in front of a restaurant
outside
the windows while we have lunch inside if we can sit next to the window
and
see the stroller. No problem. In New York a Danish woman doing so was
put
in
prison some years ago and her completely breastfed baby taken from her
for
four days. When the baby was returned she was very hoarse and hungry.
My
whole country (okay - only 5 mill, but it's all we have) was in an
uproar.

I remember that! It happened in NYC, I believe and I was living upstate
at
the time. What a culture clash. Very unfortunate for the family. Is it
just Denmark that does this? I thought when I was in Norway and Sweden I
also saw this as well.

It was in NYC, I remember it too. It was a sad story all around, I didn't
remember the baby was breastfed, that wasn't so high in my conciousness at
the time. That poor baby

-Liz

And yes - Sweden and Norway have more or less the same culture and would put
a baby in front of a restaurant as well.

Tine, Denmark

"Liz S. Reynolds" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Tine Andersen wrote:

mmm. I hear it's not really green. :*)

I'm not being judgemental - we have our issues here as well with
Greenland.

-Liz

I believe it was named by some viking who arrived there during the short
summer. It was green.

Tine, Denmark