3 things I'm feeling opinionated about...

1. Public transport stops:
Why have people decided the benches on train, tram or bus stops are for putting their shopping, school bag, boxes on, rather than for people to sit on? It's not cool, people, especially when the other people at the stop are older, injured, pregnant or infirm. Your stuff is not as important as that human being right in front of you. Honestly.

Also, smokers. I've said it before, but its important to move downwind of the stop when you smoke. It's nice that you're considerate and move away from the people, but pointless if you move upwind. I'm starting to think its some passive-aggressive pay back at the non-smoking majority.

2. Climate Change:
Truth is the first casualty in war. When any public debate becomes as heated and politicized as this one is, it triggers my deepest distrust. I count as friends passionate believers on both sides of the 'debate'. The thing I notice about their - endless and not always friendly - debates is that no-one ever alters their opinion by a millimeter, and they quote different authorities. I also notice that all of them recycle (for example), so their differences are basically rhetorical rather than behavioural. I doubt the Carbon Tax will either save or destroy the world as we know it. But hey, I could be wrong.

3. Children and Recreational Shopping:
They don't really mix. First of all, it's too noisy and stimulating for most kids after, oh, about 30 minutes. There's nothing for them to DO. You're not going to approve of them touching everything and you're not going to buy everything they want, are you? (I really hope you're not.) Little kids are strapped into strollers where all they see are legs. And guess what, big kids know that no matter how often you say, "yes, in a minute" they're here for a good two to four hours.

Recreational shopping with other adults barely works. Someone is always being patient, or failing to be patient, with the other person's interest. Witness men in women's clothes shops and women in the software/war/railway/car section of the bookstore (ok, cheap shot and stereotypical but you get the idea). An adult shopping companion won't ususally sigh loudly, demand food, cry, or run off the minute they're bored, but if you people watch you'll see plenty who want to. Adults are socialised, children aren't.

So shop by all means, but don't imagine that it is a good family outing, or a treat for the kids. Unless you're going to spend a lot of money on things they don't need and only want for the next 48 hours, then coming home with your loot via a fast food outlet where they can load up on food with no nutritional value and lots of E numbers.

Preschooler in a china shop: an exercise in futility

Today I watched a woman stop outside an upmarket gift shop, with her pre-schooler in tow. She clearly wanted to go in. She yearned. She slowed. Her child eventually stopped pointing at cars and dogs and turned to the glittering display. The woman chewed her lip and said, "Would you like to go in? We can go in, if you promise not to touch."

I mentally wanted to quote Dr Phil: "So, how's that workin' for ya?"

Seriously, caregivers of the world, I assure you that 99.9% of pre-schoolers will touch. Not on purpose, not necessarily on purpose. At that age, it's still instinct to touch everything in order to explore it.

I also assure you that no matter how nice the staff of the upmarket gift store are about you and your child browsing, 98% would really rather you didn't bring your child shopping.

They'd rather your child not touch.
They'd rather your child did not impede the access of adults who might actually buy their wares.
They'd rather not have the luxurious ambience so necessary to impulse buys shattered by your hissed reminders of, "Don't touch!".
Or by the subsequent hysteria when you want to leave but your child is entranced, or your child wants to go but you are enthralled.
They'd rather you not be mortified by all of the above and leave without buying anything, vowing never to return.

Children and recreational shopping doesn't mix. Unless you're shopping entirely on their terms, neither of you are likely to enjoy it. Some situations are just set up for failure, an exercise in futility all round.

Post 42 of 43 posts.

Bunnings is evil and must be stopped

Bunnings Warehouse is a very large, supposedly low-cost, hardware store in Australia. DIY Mecca in other words. You know you're middle aged when your idea of a pleasant Sunday morning outing is to go down to Bunnings, ostensibly to purchase some minor-but-essential item, but really to dream about all the things you'll do to your house while you eat a sausage in a bun*.

As everyone in Melbourne who is A) middle-aged and B) middle-class (in the Aussie sense... think desk-bound working class) and C) a home owner knows, it doesn't count as materialist ostentation if it adds value to your house. In that case it's an investment, even if it will be worn out by the time you need to sell in order to fund a retirement villa. It also doesn't count if it's a $6,000 BBQ, for some reason I don't quite fathom, but that's a subject for another post.

Ah, retail therapy! Today I - mentally - spent around $1500 on patio furniture, terracotta pots, a raised vegetable plot and more plants than will fit in my garden. We went in looking for grout to re-grout the shower recess. Funnily enough, we forgot to look at anything as mundane as grout after we visited the Storage, Gardening, Outdoor Living and Power Tools sections. I may have mentally spent it, but I have a feeling that the things I saw will eventually make it onto my actual shopping list. (Only 336 days until Christmas!)

But today was a win, as Mr O and I departed empty-handed - though not empty-stomached, but that doesn't count as purchse, I mean it's for charity, right?!

*In a master stroke of marketing, Bunnings have an outdoor kitchen which they loan out to various charity groups who purvey BBQ sausage in a piece of bread (with or without onion) for around $2.50. I gather its a very successful fundraiser, even better than selling chocolate and only one day's work a time.

This is post 12 of 43 posts.

5 Things I'm feeling Opinionated About

Because I don't have time to craft a post... I'm behind on my paid writing, so this is a quick one for you.

1. Swine Flu
I think swine flu is dangerous, and the governments were right to worry. I've read a lot about the 1918 influenza pandemic, and we don't ever want to see another one of those. This flu was more dangerous than bird flu, because it passes easily person-person, rather than needing a live bird as the link.  It's because the governments got aggressive that it has been contained (more or less).

That said, I think the media have shamelessly milked it for all it was worth, causing needless anguish in the process.  And I think they guy who wore a paper facemask to the Logies last night was poseur.

2. Recreational Shopping with <12s

Usually, just don't.  Most children don't browse.  They don't "do" recreational shopping.

Children like to go shopping if you are going to let them browse until they find something they want, then buy it for them, then take them straight home again.  A visit to Maccas/icecream/Krispy-Kreme may be demanded and (somewhat) enjoyed, but will then render the children overstimulated and sugar-high for the next 24 hours.

If you must take your child with you when you go shopping, think of it like the perfect 3 year old's party:  there is a game, there is cake, then we go home within the hour.

Children can't filter the way adults can, when kids get glassy eyed and bratty, they are not acting up, they are simply responding to the environment they are in.  I laugh at parents who threaten:  "If you don't behave, we're going home RIGHT NOW!" and you can see the child look all hopeful...

Under 7s find shopping difficult, because they're naturally programmed to want to touch things dangled at eye height - and you won't want them too.  There is very little good here.

3. Faux-Environmentalism

I'm no expert, but I feel that some of the fashionably "green" products are... dodgy.  I have recently read articles encouraging the use of plant dyes, for example.  I had done a natural dye course, and while the dyes themselves are natural, if you want them to have any light-fastness at all (ie not fade within a couple of weeks) you have to use a mordant.  Mordants are all sufficiently toxic, that except for vinegar, you can't legally pour the leftovers down the drain - they need to be removed by a chemical waste specialist.  

I also have my doubts about using candles for earth hour.  Most decorative candles aren't beeswax, and where they are, they were possibly shipped in from China, thus negating the green cred effect.  The ones made from stearate are a by-product of petrol, basically.  The soy candles are very nice, but I suspect that the turning a soybean into wax process may be more consumptive than I would like.

I know it's the latest fashion, but do your homework or just don't bother.

4.  Bubble Skirts

Of all the unlikely fashion resurrections.  I was so unfashionable in 1984, that I cut the lining out of my only bubble dress, so it was a 'normal' dress.  The noughties incarnation has a daggy limp little bubble that reminds me of nothing so much as the way your cossie daks looked when filled with sand after you were dumped by a wave at the beach.

5.  Popular Assumptions About the Overweight

Today I read a spray arguing against expert medical opinion that we have had no success in fighting the battle of the bulge, and governments should focus their energies on encouraging people to not get fat in the first place.  The (average weight) journalist encouraged the overweight to "have a bit of willpower" and eat less.  And not use the excuse that "we don't have time."

In spite of what the latest fad diet, or tv-reality show may tell her (and you), there is solid evidence that once people gain an ample amount of weight, they are going to have a really difficult time getting rid of it.  Or the reality tv-show would not exist, among other things.

In fact, the low calorie diet + exercise is not proven to work for this population, however much it may help the "mums trying to lose a bit of baby podge" community.

Which is why I think the personal trainer from Northcote who is force feeding himself junk food in order to "understand" his overweight clients is an idiot.

Phew! Glad I got that off my chest.  Have a good week.