h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Shhh, yours will be perfect little and never cause you any trouble, I'm sure

you're talking about the girl who just had a temper tantrum hissy fit because of a hornet in her room?

Not that it was there
Not that I took to long to deal with it

oh no

that I killed it, when I keep saying we shouldn't kill things.

Next time, you let it sting her

oh my... a mother meaner than me!!!



that's what I told her, but she went off on the "you're a bad mummy" kick

Oh well, she'll calm down eventually

Lets face it, whatever we mothers do it's wrong, we just can't win

and now I'm brilliant because after Die Sendung mit der Maus I've let them continue watching TV.

The Sunday fairy tale - only because it's The Singing Ringing Tree (das Singende Ringende Bäumchen) which I watched, serialised, back in the 1970s when the BBC realised that the cheapest way to "make" TV for kids was to import East European programmes, and have a narrator (but you could very very faintly hear the original dialogue) This one is very cheesy and was made in the DDR

'das singende klingende Bäumchen' does ring a bell, but I'm not sure why

Go and switch on the telly now, then. I think it's still on!

I've had a full reading this thread - actually that's probably because I am listening to Russel Brand on 6music and it's hilarious, too.

Lucky - it's in the genes, you know. A pale grey person like me is bound to have uneventful children. Your kids are such exciting personalities because they take after you. This is a compliment! They'll really make their mark on the world once they're let out into it. And breaking rules is part of growing up. Having to put up with them as parents is part of growing old.

Sho - think yourself lucky you don't have a middle one. All of you, actually - Sho with 2, B'Elana with 2, Lucky with 2, the others with one each. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think only Teuchter has three, and can share the complications of having a "middle" child. To anyone who was a middle child themselves ... any advice you have, I'd love to hear it. Even if it is a bit late now the poor lad's 22.

Sho - I would still be kicking myself at not having peeked in to Nr 1's room in your story in Post 1.

Nowadays I have to peek into their rooms before I leave for work to see if they came in last night. Unless it's obvious from the state of the bathroom or shoes in the porch.

Yup - little ones cause little problems. Big ones are big problems. But you grow up with them.

*quotes self*

"breaking rules is part of growing up. Having to put up with them as parents is part of growing old."

Not bad that. I'll have to practice finding pithier ways of saying things like that so I can make a living writing aphorisms.

TC I was/am a middle child - and I hated it, so I decided I'd either have two or four children, but never three, ever.

I watched The Singing Ringing Tree as a kid

Also White Horses (I had a toy horse I called Boris) and Cinderella and Heidi. I used to like the programmes from Eastern Europe

We just loved to watch Pan Tau, or 'Die Märchenprinzessin' ( The fairy princess) , and 'Der fliegende Ferdinand' ( The flying Ferdinand) -all where Czech productions.

<> (TC)

That's not what I've heard!

F56786?thread=2771268

Or did you mean uneventful in terms of not troublesome?


az

http://www.thechestnut.com/srtree/srtree-index.htm The Singing Ringing Tree
http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/whitehorses.htm White Horses

Can't find anything about Cinderella The bit I do remember is the stepmother saying Cinderella could only go to the ball if she seperated the corn from the ash when she mixed them and the birds did it for her

*smacks TC*

you, missus, are certainly not grey!

Yep, still kicking myself for not looking in her room, but we all seem to have got over it.

And... I was late booking our campsite in Croatia this year. No spaces when we want to go ... however, they did say it is possible to turn up on spec. Something I don't mind doing - but not with the gruesomes.

So I explained this and they said "well, can we have a holiday at home, then, like we did when it was really hot?"

In 2003 we were too broke and tired for a "proper" holiday. Plus the gruesomes had spent the last one (in a fantastic environmentally friendly, child friendly, gorgeous vegetarian place in the southern Austrian mountains)... moaning about the food, the beds... and wanting to play in the attic the whole time.

So we stayed home, and made a careful day-to-day plan of what to do (so we didn't just drift around and waste family time) it was brilliant, not least because the girls ate (because we cooked) without a fuss, they slept in each other's rooms, we saw a lot of the local area and we didn't spend too much money. Plus it was that looooong hot summer, and the weather completely played our game.

So, I think we'll do it again. I just have to convince which won't be hard when I use words like "money" "too" "much" and "not" in connection with it.

We can have a couple of days camping in Northern Germany, or Heidelberg without pre-booking.

But I was quite proud that they said it themselves.


now I just have to fit their trip to UK around that, and even better, and I can fly out to collect them and have a day or two in Blighty. Fantastic.

Think he'll buy it?

oh and I totally loved White Horses.

Well, I'm a girl! we all like don't we?

We're off camping to Corwall this year, Alex is coming with us this time, me and Stu went by ourselves last year because Alex had been on holiday twice once with the school and once to her dads. She's going to have a tent to herself this yeat which she's really looking forward to, being 12 and all that she thinks she's too 'big' for sleeping in the same tent.

Maybe the Gruesomes can have a week of living in a tent in the garden, I used to love doing that

Oh we used to do that too as kids, Reefgirl. Setting up the tent in the back yard and sleeping out whenever we wanted to during the summer. It was the only time I ever enjoyed 'camping' since I could go into the house when I inevitably had to pee in the middle of the night. Much scarier to have to do this at a campground.

Meanwhile Sho, you know where to send your girls when they hit 16 - over to 'casa az' for a summer. I'll whip 'em into shape and make sure they really appreciate YOU once they get home again.

I'm actually quite good with teenagers - it's just the wee ones that scare the heckity out of me! And glad to hear I'm not alone with that one.


az

The answer to Peeing at Midnight in a Campsite is to go last thing at night and don't drink after about 9pm. Or invest in a potty