Greenparent

Debate - the way an 18 year old dresses - who’s more important?

2011-10-27T13:46:38+00:00

I like a good debate so I always listen to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. Vanessa Feltz is standing in at the moment. One of the topics today was about a mother who doesn’t like her daughter “being a goth”. They spoke to both mother and daughter. I think it was a weak topic really, usually they discuss more important issues, but I guess that’s what annoyed me, this woman thought her opinion on her daughters attire was important. The daughter was had been to boarding school and was now at University studying art. She was a natural blonde but currently had her hair dyed red and lots of piercings. Her mother was making it out to be such an issue, and even Vanessa Feltz was saying the girl should be pleasing her mother!! Why should the mother’s opinion on what the daughter wears be more important. She was saying that it’s because she was such a pretty girl that she always used to dress in flowery dresses and she thinks her daughter looks aggressive, and she’s worried how people perceive her. To be honest, the daughter sounded much more intelligent than the mother, and she said all her piercings can be removed and her hair dyed to a normal colour if she needed or wanted to, and that she knows that some people will judge her but if they speak to her they’ll realise that she’s a nice girl. It really annoyed me that some people still want so much control over their daughter and all the listeners pretty much sided with the girl. I just think, she’s expressing creativity and her time at uni may be the only time she can experiment with her image, none of it’s permanent so why is it such an issue!!?

I thought I’d open a discussion on here about it as I’m sure a lot of you have stuff to say…

Sensitive: Femanism and raising a son.

2012-01-18T10:03:43+00:00

Treading carefully here as I broach this subject, not wanting to upset anyone just after your thoughts ...

I am a feminist, I guess I always have been - even as a child I showed sympathies, maybe I’m more feminist than anyone first thought it turns out. I’m cool with this and have professed many a time to friends that I am pro women not anti men.

But the other night my boyfriend said to me in a tone of disgust or dissapointment almost that I was ‘deffinitly a feminist’ (as if it were some kind of disease!) and he felt sorry for Zander (my son), himself and his older son - my stepson. I’m slightly offended by this.

But I guess thats not the point. My main pondering now is, can I raise my son to be a well rounded balanced confident young man and still have feminist interests. My feeling is yes I can, I treat my children as equals regardless of their sex and provided I keep myself in check and watch that I don’t stray into the anti-men category I can still be a positive influence to my son.

Anyway, I would be interested in thoughts and ideas - what feminism means to you if you are and how you weave this into motherhood especially where sons are concerned.

Much love and blessings

is attachment parenting bad for women

2012-01-19T15:28:22+00:00

I have just been looking at some blogs and it seems a lot of women are very angry at the whole idea of attachment parenting. I do agree with some of the things and others are a bit funny but seems to turn into a rant.
What do you think?

http://stinkerpants.com/weblog/post/is-attachment-theory-bad-for-women

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/16/attachment_parenting_dropout/

and a nice positive one
http://freeyourparenting.com/2011/11/21/breastfeeding-attachment-parenting/

Massage in schools… the debate

2012-01-19T12:40:39+00:00

I heard yesterday on Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 about a primary school in Sheffield introducing peer massage (head and shoulders through clothes) and people have complained. I couldn’t listen properly, but have just read some articles. Someone said it’s innapropriate, someone felt they should be doing something “more academic” *rolls eyes*. I heard on the radio someone had said something about developing fetishes, I think it was about the children developing fetish for massage, but it seems a very tame fetish than the other fetishes I’ve known people to have!! The children are allowed to choose their own partner and have the choice to participate. What are people’s views on this?? I personally don’t see a problem in it for children under 8ish. I’m not sure about it at the age some children start puberty, although it sounds better than being made to shower naked together (single sex obviously) age 9-11 like we had to!!

Does anyone’s childrens’ schools do it?

Amazon v tesco

2012-01-16T21:47:22+00:00

I know there are many amazon fans on here, and I have been known to buy a few things from there too. But it occured to me today, is amazon becoming a virtual supermarket to the detriment to the independent high street shops?

Interesting article about childhood

2012-01-05T11:35:49+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16409882

Strikes

2011-06-30T15:01:38+00:00

I can imagine my viewpoint will be in the minority here, and I do not have problem with people striking, but why does it always have to be about me…me…me? Cuts have been made across the board, but nobody has started striking, until it comes to their own personal pensions. Just seems a little selfish to me, but would love to hear others thoughts on the subject.

Woman leaves baby in car and car is stolen-is she at fault?

2011-11-02T09:31:33+00:00

This may cause a fair old bit of lively debate! Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/28/experience-car-stolen-baby

In my opinion it was her own fault for leaving the child in the car with the engine running. I understand that she wanted to keep the child asleep, but is it really worth it, considering what happened? I would never do that and we live on a residential street in Cornwall. She lives in London. I only have the one child (she has 3) and I know how much you want them to stay asleep and not be woken up, but I honestly can’t believe that anyone would leave a 6 month old baby in an unattended car with the engine running. Maybe she was just being naive, but I’m such a worrier that I would never have entertained the idea in the first place.

Luckily it all turned out OK. I imagine the thief would have had a bit of a shock!

What do you think? Would you have done the same thing?

Anyone else despair about losing coats?

2011-11-02T09:58:16+00:00

Oh dear, after a calm morning, got a bit shouty with Babes this morning on the issue of coats.

Coats are expensive. Now that the weather is colder and the mornings are darker they are also essential. We get out and about quite a bit so I try to have more than one as a back up. Coat number one (high vis number) got left on the bus by DH. Coat number two got left at school yesterday (expensive school coat) we had a parent-teacher meet - were a bit late and I forgot to check.

So cold morning this morning and the only coat I had left was a depths of winter one - with a wool lining. And of course Babes wouldn’t wear it because it was too itchy, she started arguing with me about it and refused.

Now, I know she has every right to, but what is a way forward on this, I try to encourage her to look after her own things. In the end she went to school in her school fleece and I asked her to look for her coat. I’ll check when we come home, to make sure that she has got it, I do try to be as organised as possible, about various kinds of kit, P.E, cycle gear, martial arts e.t.c ...

Best
w.w.

Being green is trendy….

2011-09-25T15:58:21+00:00

I put this in the debate section as I know that this may cause abit of a debate
BUT Im starting to get really cheesed off and wondering if anyone else has noticed how being green seems to becoming pretencious?
I’ll try to explain I have tried various groups with “green mummies” but find it all abit much… there seems to be a sudden upper classness in this way of thinking..

Am I the only one who does just what she can afford? Recycles where I can, buy second hand, re-wash/ re-use where I can and still allow morals to slip if finances can’t permit organic face cream luxuries?

Rant over…for now lol