In the beginning...

So, this is blogging huh? I've been thinking about writing one for a while, but was stuck for a specific subject. There's just SO much I could cover. At first the allotment seemed like a good project - and indeed it IS a good project, but I'm not sure I'd want to write about it every day!! And then there's the cooking and the sewing and the exercising and the historical re-enactment (yes, really!) so it seems the best idea to just write about "stuff" as it happens. Lets face it - every day's an adventure! Mostly.

Today Lara came over for lunch and crabapple picking (the edible variety to make jelly) and we got talking about the latest craziness to hit the world of motherhood. Yes, that's right. You cannot choose who looks after your kids anymore - apparently you never could! It's OK for any relative (regardless of their motivations) to look after your kids, but a trusted friend in a reciprocal arrangement? No way!!! You can't help but wonder what the real motivation in the hallowed halls of Ofsted really is. Do they really want what's best for our kids or what's best for their targets?

Of course, anyone providing a childcare service (and I emphasise the word service) should be regulated, though I'd have thought social services would have been the best people to do this rather than a bunch of Whitehall pen-pushers. Educational establishments should provide the best possible education and, because of an archaic law passed when anyone with money dumped their kids at private school, a good pastoral care system too - unlike anywhere else in the world! But a sound, practical and effective arrangements between two friends? Aren't most parents the best equipped to judge what works best for their children? Well, that begs a question too. A local childminder was recently shopped to the powers that be for drinking four pints of beer/lager on the local pub while "looking after" her charges. She is regularly seen with a large number of kids in tow plus a HUGE double buggy and must be absolutely raking it in. Amazingly she's still in business!!!! It's a bit trite to say "bureaucracy gone mad" but it really has!

I'll get off my soapbox now. I wonder if anyone will be interested in the ramblings of a forty-something broad, but I guess we'll find out!! By the way, the "alpha" reference was adopted after a friend said recently that I wasn't at all bossy, just "alpha". Heh, heh!!