Parenting from birth and beyond.

Advantages: The magical moments of parenthood.
Disadvantages: Warning - Children may cause greying or loss of hair.

...much else; you are pretty much left to get on with it. Being a parent is a learning curve, there is no training of any sort, you can read all the books but they will give conflicting advice and different techniques on how to approach different things. It is the same with health professionals. I had seen two different health visitors on my son's routine check up, one of which was very nice and didn't force advice on me she was very friendly, I know some can be a bit annoying with all the advice and sometimes they seem like they are telling you off. I always choose to take the advice given on board and go with my instincts, which are probably best in most cases, as we get to know our babies we know what's best for them. Everyone you know will be offering advice whether you want it or not, just remember to smile and nod your head! It is...

Autarkis 22.12.2008 (17.06.2009) · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on the Rewards of Being a Parent

Member Advice On Budgies

Advantages: In Opinion
Disadvantages: In Opinion

...I have now had my budgie for over a month now. My sister received the 9 week year old budgie as a birthday present complete with a cage and equipment. She was happy to receive the budgie. Taking care of a budgie is not that difficult as you think. The first few weeks are quite difficult. In this opinion I will give members advice on looking after budgies. °Brief History° ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I do not now that much about budgies but from my knowledge I think budgies were found and originally came from Australia while they were living in flocks and searching for food. The common name for a budgie is "Budgerigar" I am not sure what the actual scientific name is. It is long indeed. Today budgies are found in a vast number of colours, the one we have got is a green and yellow budgie. The general one. ºColoursº ^^^^^^^^ The colours...

fromthedarkside 27.08.2001 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice On Budgies

Step parents are people too

Advantages: See op
Disadvantages: see op

...I am not sure that this is totally the right category,but I am sure it is near enough. Please bear with me? I am a step parent. I have been for 16 years. I am also a parent with four children of my own. I am writing this as my story is unusual- well, I hope it is unusual because I would hate to think of too many others going through the heartache I have. I have never met my step-daughters . There are two of them. I won't tell you their names as I suppose it wouldn't be fair, but I suppose it is possible that they, or somebody they know might use this site and point them in the direction of this op! One can hope, eh? Let me tell you my story: 16 years ago I divorced my first husband. Lovely chap- we are still friends, we just married far too young. We had three young children of 6,5 and 2. It was an amicable divorce...

water-witch 30.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Being a Step Parent

Back to School - Becoming a New Parent

Advantages: At times, being a parent is the best thing in the world!
Disadvantages: At times, being a parent is the worst thing in the world! ;)

...I apologise in advance for this not really being an opinion, nor a piece of writing that actually *goes* anywhere. It's something I wrote a few months back, a week before my second daughter was born, and is more of a reflection of how life changed when my first daughter was born back in November 2000 :) Becoming a parent is like going back to school. No, I?m not talking about the kinky school mistress outfit that you used the night you conceived, I?m talking about a whole new world of learning that comes as part of the responsibility of a new baby Most magazine articles focus on the fun of a new baby. What they don?t explain is that 90% of the fun is the kind that is highly amusing to everyone else, but something you?ll only laugh at yourself a few months down the line. Ever wondered why parents of young children have such...

SeasonTicketless 28.12.2002 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on the Rewards of Being a Parent

Member Advice on Ciao Addiction.

Advantages: Strange challenges get to me
Disadvantages: None

...and you have to "want" to get better, as in smoking and other addictions, plus you have to actually get to the stage where you admit your addiction. The best medicine is a hot toddy, because it relaxes the brain and lets you chill a little. Onother known medicine for this type of addiction is rabbit interferon. What this involves is letting your rabbit get near to the telephone line and chew until the problem goes away. REALITY CHECK TREATMENT So, we admit we have an addiction, but admitting it, and doing nothing about it is destructive. We believe everything we read, we weep when things are sad, laugh when things are joyous, but we carry on trawling through guestbooks, amazed at new members that tell us things that new members could not possibly know, and going back into life thinking about friends that we have online and how we...

thingywhatsit 08.08.2003 (29.10.2004) · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Ciao Addiction

Member Advice on Pet Death

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: loss of a loved one

...grieving process you would encounter if a family member passed away. I took the decision that I couldn't let her go completely and had her body collected by a local Pet Cemetery and decided to have her cremated and bring her home for her last journey with us. For part of my grieving process I scouted all the Garden Centres for a rose which would sum my Holly up and for me to look out on and have her close at my side like she had been for those 8 years. One of the things I find hard to understand is the opinion of others who have not had the joy of a dog in their lives. They see you break down and their words of "it's only a dog" stick in your mind, they just do not understand that it isn't just a dog, it is a friend, a companion, a loved one a large part of your life, a friend you share each day and night with and who keeps you company...

allyoxley 05.06.2006 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Pet Death

It get's a lot worse before it get's better...

Advantages: You should end up with a well behaved child
Disadvantages: You will have a headache. The exact technique may not work for every child

...This is quite a long review (almost 4300 words!) as I feel it's important to give all the details. Please feel free to scan through to the information you will personally find helpful. Everyone finds different things helpful though so I didn't want to leave anything out!! For those of you that don't know what positive parenting is, it simply means rewarding good behaviour and ignoring bad behaviour but more about that later. The background My little boy is 4 and has been a handful ever since he was a baby. It's difficult to remember when it started but I remember a particular incident when he was about 5 months old and was laid back in his highchair after having some baby rice while my daughter (5 years older) was getting ready for school. When she was ready she always gave her little brother a hug and told him she...

lizngaz 11.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Positive Parenting

Ciao - Advice to Help You Get Started

Advantages: hopefully it will give you a good idea about site etiquette
Disadvantages: you don't have to take advice given here or anywhere else on the site or do you?

...that have received good ratings as these will give me an idea of what sort of information the average reader would want to see in a review about a laptop. Of course you can't please everyone - what I consider to be useful advice in a review, others might not want to see all that info - you should really expect to see a range of different ratings on reviews as what's important and helpful to one person might be completely irrelevant to another. I would also add here that just because you find a review exceptionally well written, don?t assume others should find it the same. It might be exceptional to you but just VH or even H to others. There is no perfect review and I really don?t like it when I see comments by new or seasoned members (not so much here but I?ve seen on other sites) saying things like ?I can?t believe someone gave you just...

anonymili 30.06.2009 (05.10.2009) · Read review
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Review of Advice for New Members

Swine Flu Advice

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Everything

...Now you will probably here a lot of stories in the news about the widespread outbreak of Swine Flu also known as the influenza A virus subtype H1N1, which has caused mass media hysteria for some months now. Now many people may have or may be in the process of writing a review about Swine Flu, but for me i feel as if i should be compelled to write a review, because i am currently at the end cycle of suffering from swine flu, something which i have been suffering for nearly two weeks now. I hope to provide as much information as physically possible, as well as share my experiences regarding the flu. Why? Well because i no just how powerful this nasty flu can be, and my aim is to try and help people currently suffering from it, to try and give some advice and what people should do, and perhaps just make people more aware of what symptoms...

jaygami1986 24.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Flu Vaccination

Teenagers guide to step parents

Advantages: Best step mum in the world!
Disadvantages: Parents divorcing and lots of changes to deal with

...a bit of a shock having two brothers aswell. We both had to deal with the huge changes that were happening but i am glad to say that we are the best of friends now and i class him as my real brother. Once we started getting on there was no stopping us! We both started smoking at a young age, much to our parents dislike. Then came the drinking on the park with our lambrini and white lightning! Looking back it must have be a real test of our parents relationship. Throughout it all mandy has been amazing. Ever since I've met her she has never tried to be my mum. She been there for me when iv been upset like when i was crying my eyes out after running away from my mum and the police came to take me back. She been there for me when i needed advice or when my friends needed advice. shes been there for me to tell me I'm in the wrong when i...

xdxexbx 17.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of Member Advice on Being a Step Parent