Immoderately moderate

When governments who are supposed to be moderate act like they are trying to take control of everything, then other more extreme parties seem more moderate in comparison. Just a thought, thank goodness we have the Conservatives.

I bought a magazine and I now want to moan about it

I was in WHSmith and saw a magazine called psychologies. I decided to buy it because I thought it might be an interesting read. I got home sat down and flicked through, only to find it wasn't what I expected from the magazines title at all. I expected it to be a medical based magazine detailing progresses in the field of psychology. Instead I find it to be a highbrow version of Woman's Own with enormous amount of psychobabble written by psychotherapists. With the intent of telling us how to live.

One example was an article entitled WE WILL SURVIVE by phychotherapist Derek Draper. Who had a positive message of look on the bright side of this recession and gave examples of his patients situations. One of which was of a woman who would not be getting her 5 figure bonus this year and could not afford a new kitchen. Well it really gave me a perspective of how the other half live. Take my situation.

I lived in a hostel for eight months. Then I got a flat in Rusholme, Manchester. On my first night there I had only a bed and a cooker the council rented to me and 2 bin liners of belonging which I had in the hostel. I got a £600 grant to furnish my flat. I loved that flat, apart from the unwanted visitors, namely cockroaches. I was given traps for them, which were just boxes with really sticky stuff in them and if the cockroaches walked on them, they would get stuck. They got full very quickly and I would watch them wriggling around trying to break free. They would stay alive for weeks. I loved to walk up to the curry mile and smell all the delicious spicy foods, and watch the alcoholic Muslim with a can in his hand, walking in the middle of the road chanting at the buses and holding up all the traffic. My neighbours were great. I lived next door to a polish man who I hear coughing all day, he always said hello. I would often see him taking down his net curtains in his underwear, in the summer. And my other neighbour who would steal my post at every opportunity. The guy who lived there before me had died due to alcoholism. The council told before I moved in, they found him rotting, so they had to fumigate the place. One day a woman knocked on my door to tell me all about it and she also told me he used to shag his cat. There was a crack house across the way until it mysteriously got burned down. The occasional echo of gunshots from the gun battles in the near by Moss Side.

I met my partner we had a child and I got a move to a 2 bedroom flat. We lived there for a year before we moved out to private rented accommodation. We moved in desperation after our teenage neighbour had parties all weekend and big gangs of teenagers would congregate outside the flat. They smashed windows, were loud all night, and one time made a fire on my front doorstep.

In the rented accommodation I live now this area is quiet but the house is in a terrible state of disrepair. The walls are crumbling, the whole house needs re pointing, the window frames are rotting. I've been waiting 4 years for the landlord to fix a broken window. The stairs went through and it took 2 years for them to be replaced. We have a huge damp problem as someone had concreted up all the air bricks. The gas fire was condemned last year and they put central heating in. The door frames are all wonky. When I put cupboards on one side of the bedroom they fall over because the house is leaning to one side. And as for kitchen the cupboard doors don't even meet in the middle. But I don't moan about it. I think it's hilarious. Especially the way the doors have been hung. My bedroom door hinge has 2 screws in one hole that are hanging out and look like they've been hammered in. The door moves on and off the frame as I open and close it, and does not shut properly. Last year the living room door handle fell off and I couldn't open the door. In the end we had to kick it open. The front door has swollen up and it hardly closes. I had to rub wax all around it. Also we live near a sewage works and it stinks in the summer. But I don't see these things as problems. I do look on the bright side.

Is success the worst thing for children?

Well I read this article in the Guardian. Apparently our selfishness is ruining childhood for children today. Whilst I agree with the point about Mothers going out to work whilst the children are still babies and toddlers is wrong, and that there are too many tests in school, I disagree with the rest of the article. I am also very skeptical about the motives of this charity. They are allied with the church of England, I distrust anyone who is allied with a Christian organisation, and is promoting the institution of marriage which I don't believe in. And is now come up with the idea of civil "non-religious" birth ceremony, which is just the same as a christening. It seems to me they are trying to preach religious way of life and pretending it's nothing to do with religion.

So lets look at the facts children are pressured to do well in school. Yes they are and tragically some of them take their own life because of this pressure, there may be other factors involved. After speaking to a few middle class teenagers I get the impression that they are pretty depressed, stressed and feel pressured. But all teenagers go through alot of emotions and are well known for being grumpy. I do think the testing in schools is over the top, that was one of the reasons I am home educating my children. As well as the schools being pretty bad where I live.

Women are now more financially independent so they don't need men and many children don't live with their Father's. Also many women are going out to work whilst their children are still babies.

I think women should have to look after their own children for at least until they are 2. I think it's bad for a child to hardly see their Mother. I think Women should have the choice of either having a career or a family I don't think they should have both, at least not when they have very young children. I also think that mother's who choose to stay at home to look after their children should not be made to feel like a second class citizen, and should be valued in society. It seems that only working Mum's get any praise, but what is worthwhile about leaving you're 1 year old with a childminder, or at a nursery whilst you are working in an office or a call centre, or some crappy service industry job. What a waste of time that you will never have back with your children. I have never spent any time away from my children apart from when they are in bed at night. But I do not trust the schools to look after my children let alone a childminder. Who knows how they are treating your children , or what ideas they are giving them.

I thought the idea of no advertisement for under 12's was very strange. How are they going to put that into practice? Ban advertisements on telly before the watershed. Never put adverts on billboards again. Or do they just mean advertisements aimed at children? I still don't see how that helps. If my children see something advertised that they want. I say NO, simple. Unless I decide they can have it. But I have never had to, since we don't have TV.

I think the biggest problem is that parents do not talk to their children or give them any guidance. Also children don't seen to be able to have any fun anymore because of a million safety laws and curfew's. They are saying children are suffering, but it seems to me that adults are suffering too. The pursuit of money is put above everything even happiness and love. Everyday I see miserable faces. And that's usually the adults, the children seem alot more lively. But they must think I wonder if I'm going to turn into a sour faced workaholic like my Mum when I grow up?