as one might have imagined...

...the Community Safety Dept. merely signposted other services such as the graffiti hotline, calling the Police, contacting the licensing people to discuss concerns about selling alcohol to underage drinkers and trying to identify the yobs. So far, so much common sense, but where is the integrated response they advertised?

Anyway, as I spend so much time around home at the moment, I decided to find out a little bit more about the area. So yesterday I walked into town to have a look at the local museum. It was rather dull and Babycake fell asleep instantly. However the curator was very helpful and rummaged around in the storage area until he found a couple of ordnance survey maps of the area, including one from 1868 which even showed our old outside toilet. It was amazing when we compared the map of 1834 with the 1868 one to see how much building had occurred in the area in which we live and I wonder if the locals moaned about all the development back then, as we do now. I'd love to know a bit about the people who lived in our home and imagine what their lives were like, so I think I'll go back another day and make full use of their resources.

Part of the reason that I became obsessed with finding a comfortable carrying sling for Babycake is my prejudice against pushchairs and prams. I hate them with a passion and until this week had only taken the pushchair out twice. I'm not sure why I decided to give it another try (Possibly as Babycake now looks older, less people want to touch him, so I feel he can be a bit more exposed to the world) and I now realise that Babycake really likes being in it and I have been depriving him for the last few months.
However, it now makes me fair game for comments on the boy and questions about him and marks me out as a Mummy. Now, of course I'm aware that I am the mother of a child and I love him very much, but I am rubbish at doing the Mummy thing. It was painfully clear at the clinic yesterday (where Babycake has his weight measured) that I just don't have the conversational skills to talk with the other Mummies. Bless the woman who persevered with talking to me as I have now learned that the topics are rather prescribed: Child's age, weight and whether they sleep through the night (apparently they should sleep through from six weeks, someone had better tell Babycake!). You should also comment on how much the child resembles the mother and on no account raise any areas of difficulty. Finally, do not breastfeed past a couple of months or you will probably be thought of as some hippy, babywearing freak. Frankly, I just wanted to scream out loud that a good 10% of the time I am bored out of my skull and in sore need of stimulating conversation and I'm sure all the other women did too. But we all sat there, chattering and smiling and pretending that having our children weighed wasn't just another dull event in our dull days.