Kaz, NORMALLY (this year has NOT been normal) we have quite warm weather in April, May, and June...then July and August and even the beginning of September are hellaciously hot! Then the End of September into October is warm again. November and March are usually quite pleasant and December, January and February can be downright cold.

I don't like this nasssty hot weather. I droop, especially in my attic flat. What's more, my normally low blood pressure has a horrible tendancy to vanish altogether in the heat. I do like warmth, but in moderation.

It was horribly warm here when I walked to work, and it was only half seven. Dread to think what it'll be like when I leave.

We're having a Sweatiest Person In The Office competition.



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Do something pretty while you can...

I'm sitting in the office with a jumper on. The AC is on about 19. I share the office with bl**dy penguins. Still, it's better than my husband's office. It won awards for its original way of loosing heat through the roof of the stair wells. This only works with a free flow of air, so putting in all the security and fire doors didn't help.



Post Edited (08-06-03 09:44)

I've just had a lovely two weeks in Crete where the average temp was 35. What a blow to come back to find the UK has been having the same weather! I am convinced that my neighbours are browner than I am (I have stupidly fair skin that went pink whenever I thought of going out in the sun!).

But lots and lots of lovely outdoor swimming, particularly in the Med :) Though my managing to get out to the end of the breakwater and back was slightly marred by the fact that my siblings managed to befriend an British U21 diathalon (swimming and running) contender, who was out running and swimming before 7.30 every morning!



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Jo, glad to hear you had a great holiday - never been to Crete myself but always fancied it. The first week of the two you were away wasn't universally brilliant though; only two weekends ago all the local cricket games down here in Wiltshire got washed out completely for instance!

Ah well you don't get to become a potential champion without putting that sort of effort in 365 days a year - got to be admired really I suppose...

Crete is a brilliant place to visit, particularly if you are interested in Ancient History - lots and lots of Minoan settlements and palaces to visit - most of them with walls at least 6 ft above ground level, rather than the piddling little foundations that we get in the UK. Still in a bit of a daze after walking up stairs that had been trodden on 3,000 + years previously!



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

And we reckon it's pretty amazing to walk up steps that are 150 years old.

..i was swimming yesterday, and the water was ice-cold...it was great.
but the kids there were just annoying. i was standing at the 3meter board, when a boy of 12-13 years tried to step up in front of me. i told him to get back in line, and he pointed to another boy in front of me and said "but HE let me .." and i just had to say "well, nice, but I donīt" ..well, when i was still young, i wouldnīt have dared to do something like this..

santuris

Kids have too many rights these days. that's what the prblem is. Bring back the good old days of locking recalcitrant children in dark cupboards, and fatal beatings and such like.


Nothiung wrong with a good fatal beating, I always say....

The worst problem is that kids know what their rights are! We caught some kids trespassing on our neighbour's land (he was really worried because he thought they were going to hurt themselves on the thin ice on his pond). When we asked them to leave, they said "Make us. You can't do anything about it. Our parents don't care." They were 10 and 8! They'd already been caught and let off so many times by the police that they weren't afraid of getting into trouble.



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Kaz honey, I just misread that as "nothing wrong with a good foetal beating" and you really REALLY don't want to know what avenues my mind wandered down with that thought...

can we get off the subject of hitting children please? It's not nice.

Agreed, Dave, which is why I attempted in my clumsy way to steer it somewhere else...

:-)

Beating, no. But there has to be a situation in which children know that they will be dealt with in some way if they knowingly do wrong, and why that is. Also, there ought to be praise when they do things that are right. A neighbour came round looking for her daughter (7?) who had been playing on Sarah's doorstep with a girl of 10. They had disappeared. I helped in the search. The ten year olds' mother was not there, having locked up the house and left the three children to fend for themselves. I suspect this is a regular occurence. We found the two of them, and the ten year old then put on airs that she had not done anything wrong. Next day she came round to take Sarah to task for having thought badly of her. And Sarah has been very good to her and her siblings. Next it was stones through the letterbox and in keyhole (cunning, but pointless).

My nephew once ran off against his parents wishes to see a friend ten miles away, pinching my bike into the process. He came back and hid, Eventually he got a complete screaming at, which taught him nothing. When I next saw him, I asked him quietly whether he thought that no one would mind what he had done, and whether it was really worth all that rather than asking people. Having taken it through step by step, I asked him how he felt about my approach. He said 'at least you know how to tell someone off'. He had no problem with being taught - unfocused yelling after leaving him to his own devices for long periods would have got nowhere. The impression I have is that where there are problems it may commonly be because :

mostly discipline consists of nothing, until it's too late, or yelling without explanation; and that getting things is achieved by harrassment and threats, rather than reward for good behaviour. Because it's easier to do it that way.

Oh dear, I hope I haven't got anyone's back up.

I was never hit, but I was threatened. The threat was enough, and I haven't turned out too bad.

(Don't say it.)



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

When we were children, it was very simple. First time we were naughty, told off. If we did it again, threatened with smack. If we continued, smack occured.

We learnt to stop at being told off.

My ex-neighbour's children were shouted/screamed at and sent to their rooms. That was no good as their rooms had computer/TV/video etc in them so the kids didn't mind. Life in the Lane has been quieter since they moved.

That's whyb the bottom of the stairs are so much more useful...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I think the biggest problem with trying to discipline children is that parents just are not consistent. The children are threatened with being grounded for weeks on end and then when it comes time for the punishment, it's a day or two and even then the kids haven't lost many of their privileges. If you're gonna make a threat, you have to be prepared to stick to it, otherwise, the kids learn nothing.

AND the punishment has to fit the crime. Grounding a child for a month because they lost their jacket for the umpteenth time is too severe whereas only missing one night of tv is too little for the kid who hits his sister with the vacuum cleaner hose (on purpose!)while in a scuffle. My hubby's mom is famous for open threats and over-punishments. And she wonders why her youngest son is a hellion and just got held back in school. And he's in high school!

And spanking only works as punishment until a child is about 8 or 9. After that, it's a total joke. Plus, it really needs to be used in a worst case scenario type thing. Not all parents spank, and that's cool, because not all children need it. But there are children that have the mindset that they're gonna do what they're gonna do and spanking is the only way to keep the peace. And it varies even within a family. You have to use the punishment that will most affect that child. For instance, spanking for me scared me but seemed inevitable. However, if my mother had taken away my books or not let me go outside and just sit in a corner, it would have been much more effective. But because I had hellion older siblings who had to be spanked, I got spanked too.

But I guess I turned out okay, right?? <GRIN>