Chaise-longue, peeled grapes, and peacock-feather fan

[ailbhe]

Linnea and Rob are in the playground again. At least, they might be. So I'm lying around doing nothing. I got the washing up done, which is amazing for this time of the evening, and we've all eaten dinner, and I'm beginning to think I need to keep close track of how much TV Linnea watches, because she's been watching quite a lot since my EUA. Today she watched Teletubbies, Tweenies, Something Special, and Storymakers.

The Electronic Babysitter: What harm does it really do? I mean, apart from making them lethargic, lazy, slow... all those attractive qualities. Eye-damage is one I remember from my childhood. And "frying your brain". And the whole unattractive drooling on the sofa cushions while the piles of crisp packets build up into a formidable barrier between the child and the washing facilities.

The "What to Expect" parenting books: Why does everyone think they're so scary and bad? A large number of people find them alarmist. I've had three so far and I think they're fine. Is this because everyone else's edition has an extra chapter called "The eleventh hour: How you're failing as a parent and why your baby is going to be horribly ill."

Anonymous commenters who say nice things about me: Who are they really? I mean, I ask whois where their IP addresses are from, but it's not awfully enlightening. And I don't care to know who anyone critical is, but if you're saying something nice, PLEASE tell me who you are. I'm dying the slow death of the fan-deprived.

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I have three WTE books too, and find them quite useful for looking things up and general 'if your baby is now three months old expecting him/her to be driving and speaking Ancient Greek is probably a bit ambitious' developmental guidelines. I think the difference must be that you and I are failing to see the 'you must follow every single recommendation in this book to the letter or your baby will be a dribbling moron its whole life' small print.

[artela.livejournal.com]

Re: the electronic babysitter

I don't see there being anything wrong with some exposure - especially if the programmes are educational - as long as mum or dad are around for any questions, and as long as it isn't 3 or 4 hours at a stretch! :-)

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I suspect a lot of "anonymous" comments in my own journal come from people on my friendslist who forget to log in. I've observed this in longish comment threads, when an "anonymous" IP matches the address of a friend who's previously commented while logged in, and it's clear they're carrying on from what they'd said before.

[taimatsu]

Hello, I'm a fan. Well, I enjoy reading your writings even though I don't actually know you, so that's got to count for something. :)

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Normally Jack gets Storymakers and that's it - except they do about 20 mins of something like Tellytubbies on vid at the nursery, I think, most days.
At weekends he might get something that's on before his bedtime if we want to see it - so he's seen a fair bit of motor racing (not all that interested, I think, though he watches the bike races a bit). Today he got the last hour of the test match. I pray he doesn't grow up to be a cricketer...

[pauamma]

See http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23 if you want to disable anonymous comments.

Anonymous praise

[ailbhe]

I don't want to *disable* it, I just want to know who it's from! I would never disable praise!

If they ever come up with a way of disabling *negative* comments during the journal-owner's PMS, mind you, I'll be up there at the top of the queue.

Re: Anonymous praise

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

Ooooh yes - I want one of those too!

And I'm a fan :-) But you knew that, anyway!

[(Anonymous)]

Er... I'm going to comment anoymously. But you can work it out by ip.

I got WTE when expecting, despite being warned it's scary. I'm avoiding the scary by not reading the bits about things going wrong. It also helps that I see the words "small" and "possibly" in the phrase "There is a small chance of such-and-such possibly causing bad-thing". They even italicise them to make it easier, but I imagine if my mother read it she'd be saying "Don't eat such-and-such! It's very dangerous!".

I'm also reading The Best Friend's Guide to Pregnancy and finding that scary. It's not nicely separated so that you can avoid the bad bits.

(Anonymous because 1st trimester)

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

I have the WTE Expecting, and it was, frankly, pretty useless. It was fine to help teach me the overall basis before I got pregnant, but once I'd conceived, it didn't go into enough detail to be of any help when I had questions. It was actually the least useful of the books I read while pregnant. (Well, Your Pregnancy Week by Week was on a par with the uselessness, actually.)

WTE First Year, on the other hand, is remarkably helpful. Much better.

WTE

[ailbhe]

I found WTE Expecting much less useful than WTE first year, on the other hand. But I didn't buy it while trying to conceive. And so far the toddler one is less useful than either, quite apart from being just about anti-breastfeeding (claims there is no nutritional benefit after one year, which is... well. Hah.) but I've only had it a couple of months.