This morning my parenting skills were absolutely trashed. I obviously have none. I yelled, pleaded, held on tight, left, kept quiet and finally picked up and went… Yes, my daughter had the most amazing tantrum this morning. It was the one morning in the week when I thought we had time to leave the house peacefully, walk in some puddles on the way to daycare, kiss, smile and part happily. No such luck. It started with “no pants” followed by [...]
Jan
19
Jan
11
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Grand challenge: from Staff to Visitor and other stories
What are the grand challenges in our lives? For some it is the immediate future: get through this week, this cold or until next payroll. Or maybe until the next holiday.. The list goes on. However, I was never that sort of a person. I have always been a conscientious planner. My mother tells me I even did homework in junior high (who else would?). I chose my discipline of study (theoretical physics) because I thought it was most intriguing [...]
Aug
23
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Grey like winter
This morning dawned late in our little household as Lulu let us sleep until 7:30 (bliss, although i did wake up once in the early morning to soothe her). Lulu read a couple of books with us in bed and then took off. Looking at buddy i said: What’s wrong with us? Meaning, how can we still feel this drowsy.. we even went to bed earlier than usual. Then I opened the curtains. There was practically no light coming through [...]
Aug
18
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Away from the storm
Perfect timing! Maybe not weather-wise but otherwise it was certainly true of our recent trip to Finland. On return we heard the locals’ account of what went on in our neighborhood during the recent rioting. Not good.. Living upstairs from a police station meant sirens wailing day and night, people crouching in their apartments all evening (and most of the days too I suppose), morning being the only relatively normal time of the day. Shop-raiding, havoc-causing in our local mall [...]
Aug
2
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Vent: work-life balance
I just read an article in HS concerning working mothers and tax deduction eligibility http://www.hs.fi/tulosta/HS20110802SI1MA01ko8. In Finland you can officially employ help in the home, get tax benefits, and both be better off. There is less cash-in-hand employment, more employment in general, and less household tasks / babysitting problems for the working parents. The only problem is, I don’t live in Finland. In the UK the benefits system breaks down after household income hits £ 40 000 per annum. I.e. [...]
