mothers on the verge

I'm starting to wonder if this religion thing has gone too far. For those of you new to this blog, both my kids go to Catholic school, in part due to to Alpha having had a satisfying and well-rounded Catholic education and being keen to pass this on to his girls. I, on the other hand, had an entirely secular education (despite being baptised a Catholic) and since then have bumbled along merrily trying to find meaning through a variety of different life-affirming activities (drinking, shopping etc). I have been all for it. After all, the rigour of a Catholic education is less likely to result in the girls sneaking off to drink Alcopops in the local bus shelter at the age of 12 (or maybe I'm deluding myself). But recent events have made me think that maybe there is a happier medium to be found. One worrying new development is a new game the girls have started to play, called 'The Priest'. This involves one of them standing on the top bunk in their room clutching a bible, ...

I thought I would get to avoid the horror that is known as the Disney Store this year. Please, I love Disneyland as much as the next kid who grew up going twice a year in Los Angeles. And I love taking my Rabbit. Although note to Disney people: what is UP with the lack of characters running around and forcing us to stand in LINES to meet the Princesses, Mickey Mouse and Pooh? The magic used to be that these guys just WANDERED around their land. This was, uh, Disneyland. Where magical characters roamed free. Not dive bombed in like Johnny Depp signing autographs for 5 minutes at Burger King. But I digress. So I thought I was going to avoid the whole Disney Store crud this year. Where you pretend you're at an amusement park but really the only amusement are the store clerks smirking that you're paying $3.50 a bead for a kid to make a bracelet they'll drop on Fifth Avenue about 3 minutes after you leave. But no. The Rabbit's class has a Secret Santa thing this year (which ...