Re: WHICH IS THE BIGGER CONSPIRACY???

by sami 11.06.12 7:30

The one thing I have learned in life as a parent is that when young children are involved you always need to have a plan b, as they will invariably cause havoc and plan a goes out the window.

It is indeed the robotic routine discussed by Healy in her book that is most odd. Children sleeping at exactly the same time every night, all night. The nightly bath, biscuits, milk, story, bed routine. Where is the tantrum one of them would have thrown on at least one occasion due to being over tired and out of their familiar surroundings ? Where is the child who fell asleep on the sofa at 6pm, so tired from the day, that the bath routine went out the window and child was just lifted into bed from the sofa ? Where is the child who was so tired that he/she got a second wind as we say here and went nuts and was up half the night playing, almost hyperactive ? Where is the child who decided to get in and of bed ten times in the space of five minutes thinking it was great fun ? Or indeed the child who was a little afraid of being in a strange room and took some time to settle to sleep, needing mummy or daddy to stay with them for a little longer than usual, rubbing their head whilst they fell off to sleep ?

Nope, it was a perfect routine, carried out flawlessly each and every night, military precision.

Life is not like that. If you wanted to write about the perfect life, perfect parenting and perfect routine, yes, you would bathe your children each and every single night, brush their teeth each and every night. Sometimes life gets in the way, fun takes over on holiday, routine goes out of the window and children play up and have tantrums and drive their parents crazy.

Not bad children, not bad parenting, just life and a fun one at that. The book describes events as they are supposed to happen and it is Kates attempt to show what good parents they were. IMO none of it is true.

by **tigger** 11.06.12 7:42

If you read the diary - this military precision must have gone out of the window with the Calpol imo.
Several entries in June alone about bedtime becoming a struggle (I did a June list somewhere and Pamalam has them as well) another entry that says 'we had to collect the twins from the creche ourselves....'

Entries about the twins being difficult - Gerry never fails to enter 'it's a family day today' in his blog (always Saturdays when the creches were closed).
No choice really, so you might as well spin it.

by sami 11.06.12 8:53

tigger wrote:If you read the diary - this military precision must have gone out of the window with the Calpol imo.
Several entries in June alone about bedtime becoming a struggle (I did a June list somewhere and Pamalam has them as well) another entry that says 'we had to collect the twins from the creche ourselves....'

Entries about the twins being difficult - Gerry never fails to enter 'it's a family day today' in his blog (always Saturdays when the creches were closed).
No choice really, so you might as well spin it.

Yes, that is it exactly. The serene calmness of the week's holiday as described in the book, not only does not happen in real life, but quite obviously did not happen for the McCanns afterwards. Indeed, we know it did not happen prior to the holiday either - Madeleine had colic, Kate gives us a fairly real and true description of what life is like with a baby with colic, she then had a fairly difficult pregnancy quite quickly afterwards. That is real life. Chaos, nappies, sleepless nights, a culture shock. Then a week in PDL and all goes like clockwork, until reverting back to normal, when we get glimpses from Gerry McCanns blog.

WHICH IS THE BIGGER CONSPIRACY???