alexist

Collect banned books from the Independent (£3.49 each, plus the cost of the paper: but they're rather good hardbacks).
http://www.independent.co.uk/bannedbooks for what's being published and a list of retailers.

One surprise: The Satanic Verses was omitted. Neil suggested it might be too long, but they're doing Lolita and that's not short. They've also omitted Ulysses, which is one of the most famous banned books of all time in the USA (don't know about the UK) but that IS a long one!

From the reviews on The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (the La Leche League book--which I agree with the negative reviewers is too much about pushing the LLL philosophy and not enough practical advice. It may have been necessary in the '70s, but not so much today.)

"One reviewer on here wrote that she was in tears after reading the book and that it made her feel bad about returning to work. Well, she SHOULD feel bad. Nature gave her tools to use which in part are her intuition, and she ignored them. She claims that her baby is fine, but methinks that's rationalizing the situation. Nobody HAS to have a child. You should only have one if you are willing to raise the child yourself, rather them foisting them off on somebody else. And if you are willing to give up frivolous items to save money and you still can't stay at home, guess what? DON'T HAVE A BABY. They don't ask to be born, and the least you can do is care for them like every other animal in the animal kingdom."

I mean, Jesus H. Christ. (Yeah, yeah.. it's a good expletive...) What a judgemental piece of shit, pardon my language. I'm not particularly sympathetic to that small subset of women who have a baby and six weeks later hand them off to a nanny while they work 60 hours a week. But most working women don't fall into that position. Not many women can afford to stay home full time for long periods, and not everyone wants to--and it doesn't make you a horrible mother if you do! It's a different calculation for everyone. (Of course, with infant nursery places at £200-250 a week in my area [heard yesterday] it's a pretty crappy calculation for non-top-rate taxpayers.)

(For that matter, there's a certain kind of upper middle class SAHM I can't stand either--often ex-career women who make motherhood as competitive as their jobs and who, IMO, would probably serve their kids better by working at least half time rather than overfocusing their energies on the kids. There was a NYT article recently about how these women have affected PTAs. I'm tempted to find a career just to be absolutely sure I don't become one of them, although it's unlikely--that kind of rat-race competition has never been my bag.)

And what happened to fathers? I know one guy who's working 15 hour days (banking, naturally)--he says he won't do it forever, "just a few years". Why don't we ever criticise men who put their families last? Sexism is alive and well. And by saying long hours are ok for men, we just increase the burden on women, who get stuck with all the childcare. (I'm lucky, me. Because of Neil's flex-time, he can be lateish in the evening, say 19:00 or 19:30, but that's still not bad [though it does make dinner easier when he's earlier, as he can watch Aliza while I cook] and he's really good then and on weekends and we both do the childcare--it's probably 50/50 on diapers when we're both in. :-) )

Yes, I'm depressed about that discrimination figure in the papers. Though I do wonder if the 45% figure includes women like me who have chosen to stay home.

Well, Aliza decided to break her run of long night sleeps. Last night/this morning's bottles: 00:30, 04:30(? - sometime between then and 5), 08:30, 11:30. Frequent feeder :P Though she didn't drink all of the last one, I think she was more fussy than hungry.

Anyhoo, I took her to Tesco, and I made an appointment at the clinic (at Finchley Memorial Hospital, not Tesco, thanks chick74!) for next week for a coil consultation. (Still annoyed about that, but I'll have to grit my teeth and do it, because while I want more kids, I do not want to have 2 in the same calendar year.) Mommy life, eh? I also forgot the stain remover and glass cleaner, DOH! I have some glass cleaner left at least... the top I got tomato sauce on will have to wait till tomorrow.

Next week's excitement:
Monday - Jabs
Tuesday - US Embassy (appointment at 9:30, be there at 9, Neil is moaning about driving to Grosvenor Square but there's no way we can take a pram on the tube in rush hour)
Wednesday - NCT meet-up in Borehamwood
Thursday - nothing
Friday - clinic for me