Tag Archives: Opinion

Refugees Welcome Are Here!

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The scenes in Hungary of a TV camera women kicking and tripping refugees are disgusting – and the rhetoric around their plight is making me so angry – some comments made on the article of the attack have left me really upset so here’s my rant!!

Refugees are very much welcome here as far as I am concerned!

I’m sick of hearing how terrible it is that “immigrants” – (actually they’re refugees please buy a dictionary and look up the difference) are coming into our country and eventually we’ll be the minority ….

….The minority of what? Because we are all HUMAN BEINGS and the UK is NOT unique, refugees are trying to find safety all across Europe – and we’ve taken less refugees than most other European countries – fact!

I would like all of you with children, with parents, with family to go look them in face and think what would you do?

What would you do if a small band of militants were torturing and raping your family and neighbours, beating and killing your friends and you, your child, your mom, your dad – any of you could be next – and your government stands by and does nothing – in fact they do worse than nothing – they treat you like animals too, the starve you and bomb you into submission when you protest! They support the military in attacking its own people and stand by while the atrocities happen.

Because I tell you what I would do. I would I would run!

I would run with my child in my arms and I would not look back. I would leave my job, and my home and everything I hold dear, and I would run into the unknown. and that’s exactly what these HUMAN BEINGS are doing. Running – for their lives!

And what do they face when they finally slow down running – when they have crossed deserts and oceans in the search of safety – Racism, bigoted small minded people who have NO idea what these people have been through and face scenes like this – Human beings physically attacking other human beings for wanting to get their children to safety!

It’s an absolute disgrace. Her side of the story in no way matches the scenes that were filmed – under attack? By a man with his child in his arms? By teenagers who have left  their homes, families and friends behind n the search of some peace? Really? Kicking out at children, tripping fleeing fathers is not self defense – it is single minded at best to get the shots for your job, a job you are secure in unlike the people you are attacking.

It is racist, bigoted, heartless and cruel at worse – which given the ownership of the channel she worked for is probably closer to to the truth

So now how do you feel now? What if that was you? Fleeing for your life,  with nothing but your child in your arms and the clothes on your back? With no idea where the rest of your family is – or even if they are alive. Moving from country to country because every where you turn, you’re not wanted and the people you are running from dead set on killing you in the name of religion, greed and selfishness and the people you are running towards dead set on sending you back because of the same?

Now are refugees welcome here?

Playground Talk – Random Thoughts

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Last week I was walking down the road with a friend of mine who’s daughter is at the same school as TBK  we were talking about how they were getting on with them both being  in year 7  when she announced and went into great details about her daughter starting her periods.

I’m not bothered that she told me, dammit I felt sorry for the girl by the sounds of it was hardly a gentle introduction into the monthly merry-go-round of PMS and stomach cramps but it did make me stop and think – I would have been mortified as an early teen if I’d have found out my Mom was walking down the street casually discussing what was going on in my pants with her friends – So what exactly compels us to share so much intimate information about our children with other parents?

As babies we’d discuss sleep patterns and the consistency and texture of poo, in mother and toddler classes it would be first words and and first steps. In nursery and then into school every milestone would be celebrated with clucking and cooing on the playground, the more competitive parents (mothers usually) exaggerating their children’s achievements, the quieter ones ducking the playground politics by discreetly bowing out of my child’s better than yours conversations and now here we are,me and my parent friends in the brink of those dreaded teenage years discussing puberty, periods and mood swings.

So why do we share so much? Are we telling each other all these things to gain reassurance from each other that were doing it right? To get an opinion on things we feel were doing wrong? Are we showing off? Living vicariously through out children, bragging about there progress and achievements, Or are we pre programmed as humans to share things and as parents our children are one of the biggest things in our lives so it’s only natural that these details get shared.

Or is it at as feel some of all of the above?

Today the snow came

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A splash of Colour

Everyone has been speculating for week over when the snow would come, Finally it did I woke up this morning and it was white over and it’s snowed on and off all day!

It is most amusing following peoples reactions on Facebook and Twitter – anyone would think the end was nigh! Personally I think it’s silly worrying too much about it  if it comes it comes, if it doesn’t it doesn’t there’s not much you can do to change it, but if/when it does PHOTO OPPORTUNITY!


Education….Education…Education….

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Is it a bird....?

I’m going on Holiday in October Term time AND taking my 9 year old son with me. I take him out of school every year for a holiday and for other activity days, as was agreed with his school that I be allowed to do so in advance of enrolling him.

Flexi Schooling is the correct term for it.

I take my responsibility as a parent very seriously and TBK consistently scores in the top percentile in his class  and receives glowing praise every year from his teachers, he has friends in school who come home to play (please read create havoc), and is fully integrated into society, he is bright and articulate, and as bias as I may be as his mother I do have the school reports to back this up, His education and social skills are not suffering because of it, if anything they are prospering.

YET the local paper is yet again reporting on an increase of “Truancy Fines” and while the article itself didn’t really rub me up the wrong way.  As, I will never have to pay a truancy fine for my son  as we’ve the proper protocol in place for our educational choices, But taking out holiday leave from the debate,  it still leaves the question unanswered of WHY these young people feel the need to play truant in the first place?*,  What really wound me up was the ignorance of some of the commentators who posted both before and after me.

These trips or in some peoples eyes “absenses” provide an education kids just can’t get when in school and also teaching shouldn’t just happen, and in our life DOESN’T, just happen from 9am – 3pm in the classroom!

On our holiday, just like last year, we will be teaching TBK Maths (currency conversion), Geography (he knows where we are going and surrounding countries) History, (we often like to visit cultural and historical monuments while away and actively encourage TBK to involve himself in the culture). R.E. (Turkey (this years destination)  is a predominantly a Muslim country) and much more, all on a one to one basis for periods of time he would never get in the classroom.

Previously he’s also been out of school to have the opportunity to attend HESFES, (the home educators seaside festival) where he has taken part in wood work and metal work excersizes,  fabric painting and labyrinth building amongst other things, using skills he’d have never developed sat behind a desk.

We’ve taken him out of school to have a hands on learning experience  as a zoo keeper for the day.  He’s had time off to go to an archery day, and to attend other exhibitions and events. Once, when he was in reception class, I even kept him off school on a Monday JUST so he could have a day off, As over the weekend he had participated in clay building with us, visited a monkey sanctuary, spent an afternoon playing drums and for a child of only 6 this was a lot, he needed the rest!

So how about we stop stereotyping parents who take their kids out of the classroom for any period of time as losers (as one commentator metioned) or selfish (as another did) and look at the beneifts these extra curricular activities can and do provide!

The real time and effort should be concentrated on dealing with the parents who’s children aren’t getting any education through truancy because the parents just don’t care!

* Yes I played truant as a teen, and I was duely punished for it by my mother, But I know why I did it. I hated my English teacher and she hated me, proven fact as she marked all my work down and told me , and my mom, I woudln’t get higher than a D,  myc oursework was sent to the invigulator and came back marked higher and I left school with a B (lit) and a C(lan)  Take that Mrs Smith!

Maybe if I’d have been listened to as a teen and moved to another class I’d have attended those sessions I missed and maybe that tis the answer now, listening to what our young people want!

Election Day

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Comments Box

I don’t consider myself much of political commentator,  I don’t think I honestly have anything interesting to say on the subject but,  I do vote every election. I believe in democracy and by voting I believe I’m taking my opportunity to have a little influence over how things are run. I think a lot of people fought long and hard to earn us the right to vote and I don’t ever waste it.

I also venomously believe that if you don’t vote you are not entitled to complain!

If you don’t like how things are going, if you have something to say about the economy or your bin collection is late don’t come whining to me as you didn’t DO anything to change it when you had the chance. As my manager so eloquently put it, “Voting is your license to bitch”

So with my point of view in mind I was shocked today, not by how many people have come out in saying that they have lost faith in politicians , but by the number of people who’ve said they wouldn’t be voting at all. One lady I had and contact with had this to say on the matter

I have voted in every single election! BUT now politicians have lost my respect and all political Parties are as bad as each other in one way or another, It’s not just labour MPs, Tory’s and lib dems have been at it too.

They have robbed the tax payer,we feel like we have been robbed, my husband works full time and pays over £600 a month tax. …

Why should that go towards paying for some MP’s weekly shopping at M&S when there are poor families who struggle to budget for there weekly shopping at aldi or whatever cheap shop they have to go to.

First of all I want to say, Can I have a job where I earn enough to be having to pay £600 tax a month please! Maybe then I could give more to charity to help those less fortunate instead of sitting on my high horse bitching about the unfairness of the tax system,  and secondly I disagree completely with her statement:

The majority of the politicians only took so much because the rules and the system are flawed.  If I had job that said I allowed me to claim for carpets, curtains and a 3 piece suite ,a new outfit for every day of the week and everything else to go with it I’d do it, and, so I believe, would the majority people who end up reading this.

It’s the ones that broke the rules who are the real thieving bastards. The ones who didn’t just take advantage of a flawed system, but who knowingly dodged the rules for profit, Fortunately for most of us,  they’re the ones who are falling over themselves to resign now before the shit really hits the fan.

So what’s the alternative?

By not voting and we run the risk of letting some fascist party like the BNP or UKIP take control because of voter apathy, and then we’d all be in a much worse place than we are now with a few crooked politicians caught with their hands in the till.

My solution is this, look for local alternatives, independent candidates  the green party or vote intelligently….

Vote for the party who have acknowledged the problems with the system, are willing to, and are already making changes. Look for the party with policies you agree with and vote for them!

I’ll never be, but I can do!

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I’ve felt “off” most of the day.

I can’t quite out my finger on what was wrong. I’d blame it on PMT but it’s not quite that time of the month. I’d blame it on lack of sleep, but I slept just fine. I would even try to say it was over work if it wasn’t so stupidly quiet around here today I just don’t know what it was. I do however know what cheered me up.

THIS blog post over on Moosh in Indy.

It got me thinking, I’ll never be a lot of  things but for everything Isay I’ve missed the opportunity to do I’ve opened up doors to other possibilities so much more rewarding.

So, Here’s mine to add to Moosh in Indy’s list

I will never win a Nobel peace prize,  But I can always make peace between warring 8 year olds!

And that my friends is characteristic that comes in very handy some days when the blonde kid and his friends start!