Tuesday 26 May 2009

Ask Millennium Housewife!

Crikey a month goes by quickly. It's that time again folks, dilemmas answered, life sorted, torments thwarted la la la, you get the gist. Here we go:

Maternal Tales asks:
Dear Millennium Housewife, I've just realised this morning that my child has nits, but I sent her to school anyway. Does this make me a bad mother?

Millennium Housewife writes:

Dear MT, It would be far too easy to say, in a nutshell, yes, this makes you a Bad Mother. Who in their right mind would send their little darling to school covered in lice if there wasn't an end of year prize in it for them? Obviously if there is a prospect of a prize then this action makes you a positively stupendous mother; willing to risk your child's ostracisation and subsequent mental health in order to get that trophy up on the specially made trophy shelf (which heretofore has held only the pasta shell trophy you made yourself just to have something to put there/show off to your friends), so well done you.
But let's look at this more closely. What, really, constitutes a Bad Mother? At what point do we slide from slightly slummy, to downright dirty? I mean, to start with you noticed your child had nits, that's brilliant! Close Observation skills are coming along nicely, as is the Identification, but not the Elimination, side of your parenting lessons. Another well done is due here I think, and feel free to make another pasta shell trophy, it will really mean something this time.
However, just before you go rummaging in the dry goods cupboard (you do have one of those don't you, it's not just all stuffed under the sink?), you need to consider the circumstances of the aforementioned Close Observation skills. There may be a point in considering when exactly your child contracted nits, and how long therefore it took you to notice them. Of course, if the nits had reached such gargantuan proportions that you first noticed them as they leaped tall buildings in a giant leap, or that their weight was causing your child neck problems that no neck brace seemed to fix, or indeed that they had been there so long that they had developed their own society complete with currency and language, then I suggest you put down that fussilli and consider your shortcomings.
Or, if you would like a more user friendly, and downright easier suggestion, I always find a great deal of comfort in denial, and removing my contact lenses for five days out of seven. Do that and you can place your child's nit ridden head to your guilt free bosom and claim Good Motherhood.
I know which I'd do.



Mud In The City asks:

Dear Millennium Housewife, my new washing machine is being held hostage by the delivery man. I am very close to running out of clean pants. Please help.

Millennium Housewife says:

Dear Mud, firstly I read your blog, and I know that you're a girl (or else a man with serious gender issues, issues too huge to be dealt with in this blog, so sorry if that's where you wanted me to go with this), and girls wear knickers, not pants. Boys wear pants, they're stretchy and large, often with a Y front and usually sport a little wet spot at the front. They also wear boxer shorts, like loose pants, normally slightly larger but still have that little wet spot. In extreme cases boys also wear comedy boxer shorts, that's right, boxer shorts with funny things on them. To make you laugh (hence the comedy title). I'm not sure of the usefulness of these, they seem to serve little or no purpose except to the wearer, who unless he wears a brand new pair every day, with a brand new joke on them, surely tires of the same old gag morning after morning. So the only reason I can see is to entertain anyone daring to enter the boxer short zone, and, surely, that's not the kind of entertainment he was hoping to provide. He's taken time, chatting, wooing, working all his tricks to get her into bed, probably spent a fair amount of his mortgage and made up the equivalent amount about his life to find himself in the desired position of being allowed to take each other's clothes off. Imagine then his consternation when the object of his desires finally (finally!) gets to the boxer short taking off bit, only to laugh uproariously and loudly when looking down there. Is that going to do anything for a chap's self esteem? In a word, no, unless he is using them as a decoy so that when presented with what's under the boxer shorts she is too laughed out to repeat the gesture. In which case they're a brilliant idea.
Anyway, unless the delivery men are threatening to cut off your washing machine's ear or some such grisly thing, I suggest you let them hang onto it and get yourself to Marks and Spencer for some knickers. They look so much better with bras.


Working Mum On The Verge (I think she means on the verge of a crises, I don't think she's parked permanently on a verge) asks:

Dear Millennium Housewife, How can I eat my five-year-old's Easter eggs without her realising? How come she has some left? And how come she knows exactly what she has left?

Millennium Housewife writes:

Dear Working Mum (and greetings to your verge, if indeed that is where you are sitting). Firstly you've asked three questions, a little greedy quite frankly, but then that is what we are talking about isn't it? Greed. You have already eaten your own Easter eggs, and now your prudent and restrained child is going to have to pay the price by donating hers. I know how you feel, and here's how to do it:
  • Send five year old to granny's/school/friends/her room for the day
  • Take all left over eggs out of packaging
  • Make a mould of all pieces of chocolate by pressing it in playdoh
  • Remove chocolate from mould so you are left with an impression on the chocolate
  • Create a paste from flour and water adding enough gravy browning so that the colour resembles chocolate
  • Place paste into the playdoh moulds and put in airing cupboard for two hours
  • Once two hours are up, carefully remove playdoh from the chocolate paste
  • You are left with an identical set of chocolate pieces as the original chocolate
  • Place fake set back in original wrappers
  • Eat child's chocolate
  • Let child eat fake chocolate
  • Consider it a lesson in healthy eating/being too slow at eating Easter eggs

Enjoy.

Send your dilemmas to the comments box or email me at millenniumhousewife@yahoo.co.uk

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your sage advice. I am about to hotfoot it to M&S Right This Minute - and will be sure to get non-amusing knickers.

What would I do without you?

Working Mum said...

Thanks for that, but it sounds like such hard work I think I'll just go and buy myself some chocolate! (And yes, you were right about it being greed, I did eat my Easter Eggs too quickly and now covet hers, bad mummy!)

Rebel Mother said...

I say this every time - but how I laughed! on the verge....HA!

And the dough - my sides are splitting....

How come you dont have a book out???

The world is a brighter place with you around. RMxx

Natasha Reddy said...

MH, I reckon I've had a well-organised year if by Easter each year I've managed to finish up the easter-egg hoard in my spare fridge by making my special recipe chocolate cake (uses 360g of chocolate per cake and anything else you'd like to throw in - leftover turkish delight, anyone? -worked a dream, actually, added squidgy bits!) which I send Hubby to work with every day (he then wonders where the 'love handles' came from, but, my, he does have a mid-afternoon pick-me-up!). That proves how much chocolate we acquire at Easter. And how much we don't eat (actually my mother thinks I'm a wicked mother by hiding away 5 chocolate eggs per child instead of letting them loose on them. But she doesn't have to suffer the sugar-highs as a result!)I'm afraid to say that I'm a choccy snob (only Willie's (Harcourt-Cooze: of Willie's choc series on Channel 4) choc will do nowadays, a snip on Ebay considering it's sold-out elsewhere) so I don't eat the Cadbury's stuff. Can I send any over, Working Mum on the Verge??
PS will post cake recipe on my blog today...
PS MH: we do love you! Get that book deal off the ground, I'll claim my free copy (*!)
www.frustratedstay-at-homemum.blogspot.com

Maternal Tales said...

Oh MH - how I love you! Thanks for the laugh - the rain is getting me down somewhat! Oh, and thanks fr exposing me to the world - I'd love to say that it's all a complete fabrication, but alas it is not! And thanks for the advice - I'm ever so relieved to know that I'm not a Bad Mother, just a slightly slummy one! I shall get straight back to the pasta cupboard and make another trophy! xxx

and1moremeans5 said...

award for you over at mine x

Lola said...

Just to let you know a special, limited offer is available over at my place!
Looking forward to seeing you again,
Take care
Nora:)

A Confused Take That Fan said...

Dear MH
I'm sorry I don't call, write, blog, text, twitter, email etc anymore. How can I possibly make it up to you? I am reluctant to come out to play until that Susan Boyle disappears off our tv, Brad dumps Ang and Peter Andre and Jordan get back together. Do you think these things are likely to happen? Or am I to remain wordless for the unforeseeable...?

Rebel Mother said...

Award for you over at mine - hope you like it RMx

Dorset Dispatches said...

I always thought stealing your childrens chocolate eggs was routine - I mean it is bad for them so I see it as my duty...

Millennium Housewife said...

Mud, I'm sure your life will improve no end

WM, good idea, wish I'd thought of that

RM, flattery will get you everywhere - I swear! Thanks x

HR kudos for longest comment!

MT you do that sweetheart, anything to make you feel like a better mummy

Amy you're a star!

NJ on my way over x

Confused, I've told you my theory and I'm sticking with it

RM thankyou!

BiB, certainly, however you want to dress it up is fine by me

Order Pharmacy Online said...

LOL. Won't the kids' think the easter eggs taste funny? Wll I guess, gavy and flour is the lesser evil compared to broccoli eggs I got when I was younger. For the mom with the nit question: That doesn't make you a bad mother. Wash your child's hair in vinegar. let it sit for moment then use a fine-toothed comb. This is especially good if your child get irritated skin from medicated shampoos.

lagirl/Sweet Tea said...

So funny I'm about to pee my "knickers"!

Thanks for stopping by my Blog. I signed on as a Follower, so I'll be back!

Frog in the Field said...

'Let child eat fake chocolate'!!!!
You're cruel and heartless...may try this with Darling Husband....

Nunhead Mum of One said...

Millennium Housewife, I have a question for you! How do I stop my mother-in-law interfering in EVERYTHING?

Please help!

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