Wow.......

Wow. That certainly struck a chord, didn't it! My email inbox exploded and guess what? Not one person disagreed with me. Now that is very interesting. And thank you, Tigger and co, for emailing me for the first time! I love to hear from people who pop over to visit.

Mollycoddling. Cossetting. Cottonwool. Over-protective. Helicopter parenting....... all words used by you. And I have to agree. And many of you work or have worked with children, so you see all this at first hand. Experts, in other words. We know what we are talking about.

Do you know what was discussed by paper reviewers this morning on TV? The fact that young offenders, aged 15-18, get a packet of sweets on their pillows the first night they are admitted to the young offender's institution. Because they are scared and need something nice to cheer them up. Good grief. To be sentenced to time in a correctional unit, you have to have done something pretty foul here. And they are scared? And need something nice? Like sweets???????? Oh no, they do not. One of the reviewers said, and I quote, "They are children after all. There is nothing wrong with giving them something like sweets to cheer them up." WHAT!!!!! By 15, you HAVE to know the difference between right and wrong, no matter what your background. By 18, you are a man (or woman), for heaven's sake. And it stands to reason that they have made the choice to break the law.

Choice. Consequences. Responsibility.

Aiyaiyai.

On a more prosaic note, I have been baking peanut butter cookies this afternoon. It has taken hours. My oven has been broken a while now, so I am using a tiny microwave sized convection oven, so can bake....wait for it.....11 cookies at a time. Hours, I tell you. BUT, the plus side is that the kitchen is all warm and cosy and Christmassy now. And I am thankful that I have the means to bake anything at all. They are finally done.

I went to aquazumba (red bouncing stars on head band again - we are all about being festive around here) this morning, and that was energetic, to say the least. You would laugh, people. I bought a new bathing costume because mine was on the point of disintegration, and the "tummy control" part of it had ceased controlling anything at all. In fact, when I bounced about (and I use that word advisedly), I seemed to gather a huge tyre of water/air and YOU HAVE NO IDEA what a battle it was to keep it under control. Anyway. I bought a new costume. And do you know???? I can swim SO fast! I must have been lugging around a huge sack of heavy water with me for the past few months. Good grief. The speed! I amazed myself today. I am happy to report that the tummy control thing worked today and my energetic zumba-ing in the water was a triumph, so baking cookies was entirely permissible. .

Expending energy = lack of energy = cookies= energy.

See? I should be a scientist.

I intended delivering Christmas cards to the village today, but I never got round to that at all. David will have to ride shotgun with me tomorrow and I will drive and he can do the hopping in and out. Perfect. Solved.

Right. It is now 5.30 and I need to consider what food this family will be eating tonight. One cannot live on cookies. I need them for gifts. I will be back.