Priorities
Jan. 22nd, 2006 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheI am sick. Linnea was sick. Rob is sick. Rob and I didn't even notice we were sick until Linnea got better.
It takes at most 6 hours to visit friends in Dublin by plane, door to door. It takes at least 8, sometimes 10, by train and ferry. But it's easier by train and ferry because Linnea prefers it. It's also more eco-friendly and it may be cheaper.
The most important thing about a restaurant is whether they allow children to wander around in the lobby or similar between courses. Oh, and whether they accommodate dairy-free food.
Seeing pregnant women buying baby formula is painful, but I am too much of a coward to come up with something to say to them, and I can't think of anything to sayanyway. Would you change your parenting decisions based on something a random stranger said to you when you were shopping 7 months pregnant with varicose veins and a desperate need to pee? the best i've come up with is wandering off saying to my companion "I'm glad I never had to get up in the night to mess with bottles," but frankly that's weak.
Ethical shopping pales when I see a fantastic piece of slave-manufactured plastic in Linnea's hands in a shop, as she demonstrated a previously unknown skill - colour identification, for example, or counting. I usually manage not to buy the thing, but it's a lot harder than it used to be.
I am much, much angrier about certain stated opinions, and much, much stricter about both foul language and cigarette smoke. It's not just me it might offend now. It's a child who doesn't even understand what's going on and might absorb it anyway. I have a horrible feeling she said "shit" when she dropped a tub of bicarb the other day.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-22 11:41 pm (UTC)And if she said "shit" in context, be glad she knows when to use it properly :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:10 am (UTC)Andy is sure that he heard Kate say "fucking bum" this morning when she didn't know he was listening. It is highly probable as there are some rough children in her nursrey class who swear constantly. She's never, ever said anything like this in front of us.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:13 am (UTC)And I never do say anything. It's just painful when a pregnant woman is obviously not going to try to breastfeed. Many of them, in fact, are being bought the whole formula-feeding kit by their own mothers - bottles, steriliser, formula. That's sad.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:29 am (UTC)But seeing people's own mothers set them up for failure to breastfeed... so, so sad.
(Re: Holly refusing: I personally think it's mainly down to lack of support, because you were willing to work through all the issues, as I recall, but you didn't get ANY help - yes, she refused, but with proper support from your medical professionals that could probably have been overcome).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 01:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 07:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 08:11 am (UTC)Amen, sister. I was the only one in the maternity ward (both times) who even started breastfeeding; the first time I was only in there for the night and after 30 hours of labour all I wanted was to sleep, so I didn't talk to anyone, but the second time I did talk to people and most of them honestly thought their own milk wasn't good enough <boggle>.
Another rationale was that someone else could feed the kid, which I can at least understand (though I don't agree).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 08:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 08:29 am (UTC)I try not to feel guilty too much as it meant I could take the anti-depressants & I do finally feel that I'm getting better.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 09:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 09:27 am (UTC)The eco bit of train+ferry vs plane may not be as clearcut as seems immediately obvious. I don't _know_, but I'm aware that sometimes the intuitive answer is wrong.
Re breastpumps: anybody lucky enough to have a bit more milk than they need should donate the the milk banks the SCBUs use.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 11:24 am (UTC)N's "kink" caused him to puke all the time, at least he latched on, but he was sorted by a CO. (Sorry for butting in, but I always find myself evangelising about cranial osteopathy in these circumstances)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 11:41 am (UTC)see www.thisamericanlife.com, and look for the episode "Propriety". streaming free on the internet now :D
(waves to Linnea)
i hope you and rob feel better soon.
n.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 12:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 01:07 pm (UTC)Agreed, but I also agree that it would be dodgy to say anything.
And for me, it's not as painful as seeing heavily pregnant women SMOKING, which really pushes my RAGE buttons.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 02:23 pm (UTC)We inquired about donating to the hospital where Amy spent a week in the NICU, since Stella was producing enough for two, but they said they had given up their milk bank program because the hygiene restrictions (IIRC) on donated milk were so stringent that it had become impractical for them. Which I thought was a pity.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 03:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 03:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 05:02 pm (UTC)Phew.
Now on to the next round....
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-23 11:09 pm (UTC)as for your friend, she deserves enormous congratulations and medals for the lengths she went to for her baby, and I hope she got them!