I've got a lot off my chest lately - so stay with me, and I'll reveal all!

[More:]

Well I hope that got your attention, and, before anyone asks, I do mean literally as well as figuratively - but not in a page three way!

Third time lucky, I finally managed to get rid of my old chest of drawers on freecycle, though the rest of the items that were on top of it are still awaiting new owners! It's a pity really that such a potentially excellent idea for getting rid of unwanted but not unuseable items without sending them to landfill has been marred for me by poor communication and the inability of people, who supposedly want the items, to turn up to collect them at the agreed time.

I have been suffering from guilt since watching this week's Panorama on whether watching television is bad for children. It's not so much the programme that made me feel guilty. The results seemed to be inconclusive with regards to whether children performed better in school when they didn't watch television. But I have always felt too much television was bad for children and yet, somehow, my elder son seemed to have slipped into watching way more than I'd realised! (As they, say it is an easy way of keeping him quiet while I get the jobs done.)

Still, I have been pleasantly surprised to find how easy it has been to stop him watching more than 30 minutes a day, and we have been doing fun things together instead. Just as well really, as my younger son had his two-year development check with the health visitor yesterday and that too brought home how little individual, appropriate-age attention the two boys get as I try to divide myself between them both! All I have to do is make sure the positive changes last...