Are birthday parties (at a house, or birthday event place) a standard thing over there, though? Like this mom who brought the big plate of doughnuts, she brought them to school on his actual birthday, a Friday, and then all those same kids came to the kid's birthday party on Saturday, and had another pile of doughnuts (this particular kid doesn't like cake.)

At some point it seems like spoiling them to me, but maybe I'm a Nazi.

"Muslin" cracked me up, it's exactly what they all say. :) Yes, the other kids are always right on top of things, way better than the adults. It was really touching at the first birthday party Minifob went to last year, at least three kids came up to me to make sure I'd brought a treat for him, because he was going to be allergic to the cake, did I know that?

We have a no outside food rule as well. Every year we tell everybody and every year somebody gets pissed.

Think they'll appeal?

no question. But it's a serious uphill fight now.

It's 2:48pm, and the Indian gentleman and his real estate agent are STILL standing at his pickup truck, chatting, looking at the outside of the house, having walked through my house in their allotted time slot which was 1pm to 2pm.

Is the agent not familiar with Glengarry Glen Ross? Ask Al Pacino, Indians never buy real estate, they just want to talk your head off.

I really hated the whole real estate sale process when we sold our log cabin way back when. We tried to sell it on our own first and we had a woman look and look but finally said no. Then we had it listed and the same woman bought it so we lost more $ than we would have... irritating.

Coffee is for closers! Dammit!

Yes & no.
The school catchment area is mostly affluent (meaning stay-at-home Mums, foreigbn holidays, a two car household, Dads who work "away" some of the time).

One girl in my class would never bring in home-baked treats as she barely sees either parent in the week - both work in London and commute. But she has a big birthday party every year, 40 children.

Others work but their child-minders hand over at 18.30 and they will do the chocolate thing and maybe have a party for 15 "best" friends.

Some don't work, volunteer at the school, know all the other parents and have a house party, or a themed party (riding, swimming, farm etc) for 5-10.

So it varies. Choc (sweets) seems to be the way of including all the childer without having to have a party for absolutely everyone they know. Especially as we have mixed age group classes.

NB - Tiger went to a party in the spring this year. He had a hotdog, because he has hotdogs at the school CineNights. It was the wrong type of hotdog. He was so distressed Mum took him home (oh you can bet she goes to every party). K, who lives in the house behind and is a good boy but can sometimes tease Tiger, had his arms around him saying, "It's okay. If you don't like it you don't have to eat it."

Toying with my emotions... I read "It was the wrong type of hotdog" and had a flash of excitement that Tiger's parents had put him on a restricted diet. Oh well.

It's come up in conversation, but really not my place to push it.
I would to a member of family.

Yeah, I know. Pushing most people won't help anyway--either they're interested enough to do the research and come to you, or they're not interested.

I don't understand why most parents don't see the value in a restricted diet to be honest. Whether your child is ASD, ADD or any other D, or is just a run of the mill kid, most of them react negatively to some foods, particularly highly processed and preserved crap. I know Aden still carries on like a pork chop if he eats too much crap food. Mav not so much, and I just wish Max would eat. lol It's just not good for anyone to eat that stuff.

Yeah, but at the same time, you get people who say that their kid eats a totally healthy, organic diet, with no processed anything, and therefore something specific like gluten couldn't possibly be an issue. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "But he only eats whole grain bread!" One man's food is another man's poison, and all that.

How's that skull fracture coming along, kiddo?

When I worked at the place that will remain nameless, I had a student who literally only ate whole grain bread from one particular bakery and showed every indication of severe gastric distress but parents and genius professor administration wouldn't consider a change because there was no scientific evidence.