What family means to me - #dosomethingyummy post 2

This is my second contributory post to Nickie's prompts at Typecast.  The campaign aims to bring awareness to childhood cancer.  Pop over to Nickie's blog once your finished reading to check out the rest of the links. 

What my family means to me

I was born in Dublin, the youngest of a family of nine children.  We lived in the suburbs, quite close to the city, in a two-up, two-down.  Yup, two bedrooms for eleven people.  My dad worked hard and provided well for his huge family.  My mum stayed at home and looked after us as only an Irish Catholic mother can.  It was cramped, we didn't have much.  Although, I can only say this in hindsight.  While I was there, living it, it never seemed like anything but home. Maybe six girls to one bedroom was a lot, but it made us all so close.  Maybe there wasn't luxuries, but Mary (my mum - everyone called her Mary. Her children, grandchildren. Everyone.) baked almost daily, sweet and savoury pies, scones with jam and cream.  And you could bring a friend home for dinner, unannounced and she never batted an eyelid. 

Being the youngest, I was spoilt.  Not with "stuff", but with so many more important things.  I always had someone to turn to.  I always had someone to visit.  I was taken out for treats by my older siblings all the time.  I had my first niece when I was 6 and each year our family continued to grow.  And it never felt too big.  Never felt too loud.  Never felt too crowded.  I was always surrounded by love, by laughter, by people who cared.

Since moving away from Dublin in 2002, I've constantly missed my family.  We keep in touch how we can, but I sometimes feel out of the loop.  Babies are born, people move on and I miss it so much.  But they're always still there for me.  I'll always be a part of them, even while I'm apart from them.

What's pissed me off this week

I have decided to start a weekly (ok, the intention is weekly, but in reality, it will be lucky if it survives this week!) post covering the things that have pissed me off in the previous seven days (in the interests of catch-up, this post will cover everything that has pissed me off in the previous gazillion days in my life).  

1. Bullying - or to be precise, the Panorama documentary about cyber-bullying.  I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but it comes from someone who was bullied most of her school life and still has instances of bullying now.  Bullying in school is appalling and every school's main aim should be to eliminate it.  Kids can be horrible and their parents don't help matters.  It is everyone's responsibility to tackle bullying.  However.. (ok, this is where it gets controversial...) cyber-bullying, while just as hurtful and damaging, has a simple solution. Block and report. Silence your online presence. Avoid Formspring. These people will never stop, so just don't give them an audience.  A parent will take their child out of school because of bullying, yet they don't remove them from Facebook?  I've taught my kids not to be online victims - it's every parents responsibility to do the same.
2. Blogging - it's always been a love/hate relationship.  I love to read them, it's sometimes a chore to write them (which defeats the purpose) but having read a couple of new-to-me bloggers this week, it amazes me that they can manage to write a blog, perched as they are on that high horse of theirs!  Blogging is fun, to me it's like a really long tweet.  I've never done PR, I can never remember what SEO stands for.  It's like a "U"-rated diary, where I can spout my verbal diarrhoea, to coin a phrase. It's not about being influential, it's not about numbers, it's not about Klout (sigh..), but about you being you being entertaining. IMHO, of course.
3. Snow - seriously, be soft, romantic, idyllic, magically... or just fuck off, there's no inbetween.
4. Facebook Statitus - the compulsion to air your endless moans and groans on Facebook, in an effort to draw attention and virtual hugs. Everyone deserves sympathy now and then, but sometimes it's nice to hear the good news, to hear the happy times, to hear you've just have a decent cup of tea, ffs!! (This infection is spreading online, mutating to the growing Twitter Updatitus. Get vaccinated now!)
5. Take Me Out...ta here! - Nope, this isn't a rant about how much I hate Take Me Out, (though that is so true.. you wouldn't believe how enraged it makes me.. the archaic format, the sexist banter...grrrr...but, I digress) this is a twitter bugbear of mine.  Some people like some programmes, and so they tweet about those programmes.  Some people hate those programmes... so why, the fuck, do they tweet about those programmes? You don't like it, we get it.  That doesn't give you the right to sneer and deride people who do?  Block the hashtag, ignore the tweets or, god forbid, turn off Twitter! Just stop being so pompous!

I think that's enough.  There are obviously more than five things that pissed me off, but in an attempt to avoid being on anyone else's list, I'll quit while I'm ahead!

Missing - My #dosomethingyummy Post

I've decided to #dosomethingyummy Writing Prompt to promote awareness for CLIC Sargent's awareness campaign.  It's a first for me to take part in a link-up like this and so I decided to challenge myself by attempting a Creative post.  I'm not really impressed with it, but there has to be a first time for everything.


Pop over to Nickie at Typecast's blog to check out the rest.


Missing


It was the lack of alarm that finally woke me.  Like a newborn baby, I stretched with curling toes and arched back.  The complete bliss that comes from knowing I had nowhere to be, no-one to see.  A work-free day, a responsibility-free day, a pamper-filled day.  I rolled over and reached for my phone. No messages. I shifted, turned my pillow over to the cool side and lay back down.  Idly, I thought what I could fill this day up with.  There was that book I'd been meaning to finish, could always do with painting my nails, maybe a liquid lunch or housework if I got REALLY bored.  The possibilities... I stretched my arm out again and picked up my iPod. No tweets.  *sigh* 


Desperately needing a shot of caffeine, I dragged myself up, shuffled into my slippers and sauntered down the stairs.  As the cats weaved themselves around my ankles, I was thankfully for the attention, despite the fact that they just wanted feeding.  And so, after seeing to them and chucking the fork into the empty sink - empty and still sparkling from when I cleaned it last night - I flicked the switch on the kettle.  The fridge hummed loudly, funny how I'd never noticed it before.  Booting up the laptop, I noted how fast the broadband speed was.  Where usually the lights on the modem flickered, sending and receiving, this morning it flashed intermittently,  the luxury of a whole bandwidth to myself.  No emails. The kettle whistled as I reached for a mug; had to search for a mug that wasn't someone else's favourite.

I loaded up Spotify to break the silence as I caught up on all the news on Facebook - no status updates. As I tucked my legs under and pulled a blanket over my shoulders, I noticed how perfectly straight all cushions were, the remotes aligned with the end of the coffee table, the blinds still drawn.  


Today was only day one... how on earth was I going to cope with the lads being away on camp for a whole week??

Brand Loyalty - To Buy Or Not To Buy

A few weeks ago, I saw an article on TV about high street shopping and how, to save the shops we love, we have to commit to them.  This got me thinking about the whole idea of brand loyalty and whether or not it exists in this economy. 


To be honest, I've never had any steadfast loyalty to any brand.  Growing up in a household with ten other people, we were lucky if our tins had any labels.  All shopping was done with consideration and planning with the main aim to be to save as much money as possible.  And now that I have children of my own, the same rules apply.  When we moved here from Ireland, it was a pleasant surprise to find that if we shopped around, there was significant savings to be made.  Yes, we do prefer brands some of the time.  The OH would prefer to only drink Coca-Cola, the boys prefer Kelloggs for breakfast and I can always tell the difference when we have Heinz Baked Beans.  But we can't afford to be picky, especially nowadays.  I will splash out on brands when they are on offer and when Andy sees we have branded goods, he'll always ask if they were on offer!


I've never felt neglected having own- or un-branded goods.  I don't really believe in labels either - I'm quite happy with supermarket clothes and anything special, I don't mind "vintage" from eBay.  My sons think the whole idea of buying clothes because of what's emblazoned on it, is ridiculous, which I'm very proud of.


How about you, though?  Have you always bought the same brands?  Do you think it's a question of money?

Everybody's Shuffling

So I have decided to blow the dust of this blog especially to take part in Seasider Clare's shuffling meme via Nickie at Typecast.  As I only have the one album on my iPod at the moment, I have chosen to shuffle my iTunes.  God knows what this'll turn up....

The Masterplan - Oasis

My Own Peculiar Way - Joe Dolan

Dog Day Are Over - Florence And The Machine

It Feels Like I'm In Love - Kelly Marie

I Believe In Angels - Abba

Oh dear....

My Favourite Christmas Song

It's been a proper age since I blogged (or did anything else for that matter, since I started my new job), but I've been tagged by Ceri at The Liberated Womble to write a post about my favourite Christmas song.


I'm still not in full Christmas mode yet, although I have changed my complete iPod playlist to carols and festive tunes.  These range from the trip-off-the-tongue favourites to obscure long-lost ditties.  From all of these, it is hard to pick a favourite.  However, there is one song that has the ability to total fill my chest with emotion, at any time of the year.  And you'll be surprised when I tell you that the first time I heard this, it was the soundtrack to Home Alone.


Enjoy! x

Kids Gaming And PEGI Ratings

So I know I'm late to this one and sadly only now got around to blogging on this issue, but for what it's worth, here's my tuppence worth.

Both Nickie at Typecast and GeekMummy have blogged on this subject, as have some others and probably more I haven't had a chance to read.  The opinions on these two blogs are both balanced and I can understand both points of view.  However, I have a different approach to my own boys use of computer games.

This may shock, but the first game that my lads played was on PS1, way back when they were pre-school was Tekken, which was pre-PEGI but rated as T for Teen.  They played under supervision with their dad.  It never occurred to me that it would have any effect on them.  Despite their young age, they knew it wasn't real.  They never re-enacted the moves.  I know this isn't a "gory" game, which I certainly wouldn't have let them play so young.

But as they got older, I never really paid any attention to the age limits on any games or movies.  Up to the age of 12, I never let them watch anything or play any game that I didn't first research.  To be honest, they weren't really big fans of shoot-em-up games back then.  But when we discussed new games as they were realised, often among a flood of public outrage, I gave my opinion on what I thought was unnecessary and simply sensationalism.  It would be then up to them to decide whether it suited them or not.

The reason I never paid any attention to age restriction guidelines is because I know my lads better than anyone else.  I know that at the age of four, Andy was quite mature and knew the difference between right and wrong.  I know that even now, at the age of 14, as much as Joe would love to watch a Saw movie, he simply can't sit through the whole thing.  I know that, whatever game they play, they realise it's not reality and has no bearing on their real life.  I know they communicate with people online, but they know the dangers.  (I will be first to blog when the debate about kids online arises).

It's been 12 years since my lads fostered an infinite bond with games consoles.  So what has been the effect of all this "delusional, lazy" parenting?  Well, both my sons and straight A/B students.  Their behaviour in school is exemplary.  They've never had an ASBO, a caution or even a detention.  They've never been in a fight - well, never a physical fight; both are quite prepared to voice their opinions vehemently.  I couldn't be any more proud of them and people tell me often what fine young men they are turning into.

So you can say this makes me an irresponsible parent, makes me delusional and lazy.  But it works for me.