playdate

It's about the Ink

Guest post by the Crossbowman

What's that?

You have a tattoo?

You have more than one? Oh baby, you and I need to talk... or something!

Dry Spell

by hot mama

Dear readers,

I promised to regale you with the escapades of a hot mama, and I wish I were delivering. I just haven't had much, um, material lately. I've recently started a new project and it's really consuming all my energy, I'm sorry to say (Hot Daddy's pretty sorry too).

Private Child Care

Private, for-profit day care is coming to Canada, but CUPE is fighting against their arrival and implementation. According to the report, since British Columbia announced a captial fund to create new day care spaces and (for the first time) allowed for-profit day care companies to apply, a Texas-based company (123 Busy Beavers) with corporate ties to ABC Learning Centres of Australia, has begun to set up shop. The company has also begun inviting Ontario day cares to have their businesses valued for potential sale to ABC, likely in preparation for expansion to the country's largest province.

ABC Learning Centres has a long and (from a purely business perspective) impressive history. Before they came about, 25% of all day cares in Australia were for-profit. In the last 20 years, that split has flipped, with nearly 75% being for profit now, and almost one third of those owned by ABC or one of its subsidiaries. ABC leverages the current trend in many governments to offer incentives and assistance related to child care into big business as a means to establish their centres, and then increases fees at a rate higher than that of wages (in Australia, child care costs have increased by 123% while income has only seen a 62% increase) to induce more government spending in child care.

Love and delusion; keeping them alive

My husband, bless his dear wee soul, is convinced that his beloved wife is a dear, wee soul.

Emphasis on the wee.

Let me explain by saying that my husband often buys clothes for me. He has great taste and has picked out some really cool clothes. Clothes that I love. Stylish clothes.

Small clothes.

Bullies, Bossies, and Other Pests

It surprising to parents of three-year-olds that bullying and bossing and social games start early. Preschoolers are beginning to navigate this stuff, even before they get to kindergarten, and it can be painful to watch, even in the early stages. There is, however, more and more interest and awareness around bullying now than ever before, and with that comes a handful of picture books. Myself, I look for light-hearted, story-based, not-too-earnest ways of talking about bullying and being a good friend. These stories really don't talk in a direct way about what bullying is and how to deal with it, but rather offer a little tale, and in reading, I take the opportunity to comment on what is happening and ask questions of Pumpkinpie. "How do you think she feels right now?" "What do you think she could do?" Talking early and often is a great way to start the discussion and keep it going, and a book is always a nice, non-threatening place to begin.

This crop should open discussion with kids who still enjoy picture books, say from ages 3 to 8 or so, pretty easily. For early readers (about grades 2-3) who may want to read books on this theme by themselves, try simple chapter books Super Emma by Sally Warner or Jake Drake, Bully Buster, by Andrew Clements. (For more serious cases, though, there are books in the parenting section to help parents deal with the situation, especially for parents of older children, who may be facing more extreme degrees of bullying.)

The Witches Are Coming! The Witches Are Coming!

Hallowe'en is closing in fast this year, and it seems even faster than usual, with the unseasonably mild weather. So rather than let it sneak up on me (and you) entirely, I'm giving you a week's head start on it! And rather than fiddle with loading pictures and Odeo players here (which, frankly, took me so long to get all together and working at the same time last year, I refuse to try again, sorry), I'm giving you a link to my list, chez Life of 'Pie, of favourite Hallowe'en stories for the young.

These Picks from the Pumpkin Patch, which include me reading two of the stories, are mostly quite gentle and younger-child-appropriate, but I've noted the two that I think are better for somewhat older kids. Enjoy, and happy spooking!

Pumpkinpie's Picks for October

A new crop of books has come around, and a few of them have stuck.
Here's the handful that are keeping Pumpkinpie's attention these days.

Adequate Home Care

Yesterday, the Toronto Star ran an article about the 83 year old mother of a local Member of Parliament (MP) who had to be taken to the emergency room for an infected surgical wound. The infection was the result of inadequate home care after being discharged: the nurses skipped scheduled appointments, and nothing changed with phone calls or complaints. The piece used the story to highlight problems in the Ontario home care system with the message that if MPs cannot get proper home care for their parents, how can the average citizen accomplish this:

"If this can happen to me, as someone who has been in public service for 20 years, this can happen to anyone."
-- Olivia Chow, Toronto MP

Is it time for your regularly scheduled maintenance?

It's so great to drive a brand-new car isn't it?

It roars to life at just the gentlest touch. It hums like a bird at any speed. You can be rough with it, neglectful even, and yet it drives with confidence.

Eventually the car will start to show its age a little. The engine gets louder, less graceful. It starts to lurch around, rather than hug, the corners. You start to notice bumps and thumps, tiny dents and scratches, that were never there before. You worry that things are starting to really break down.

Gardiner

The museum- not the expressway.

So I have been wanting to check out Jamie Kennedy's latest restaurant at the Gardiner Museum for a while now, and as luck should have it there was one last table available at 1:30 on a Friday.
Even though I called in advance for the reservation, we still waited for almost 20 minutes before being seated.
not so great when it comes to lunch time.
The hostess did provide us with a menu to look over while we waited and waited, which is always good.