Do women treat men like children?

A debate on morning TV recently asks the question - Do you leave 'to-do' lists for your partner? Maybe even instructions on how to perform household tasks and a few notes when it comes to looking after the kids??

The head teacher of a leading girls' school has said too many women are treating their husbands like children - and it's time to stop.

Vicky Bingham, head of the £18,000-a-year South Hampstead High School, thinks male domestic ineptitude is a myth and women should loosen their grip on the household to prove to their daughters that they don't have to be perfect at everything in life.

The trouble is, we are all so busy, sometimes you have to explain things in words of one syllable or end up doing the tasks yourself.

Much as we all would like to be superwoman, we don't all have blue tights and a red cape - mine have certainly disappeared!

 

I suppose the question is, would your partner allow you to be treated like a child? Of course every relationship is individual, and you have to do what's best for your loved ones.

Having children, doesn't come with a rule book, nor do relationships. I think that being honest with yourself, and your loved ones could be the way forward. Even if that means leaving a "to do" list where it can be easily found!

BREAKING NEWS: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to marry in the spring after he proposed earlier this month as the Queen says she is 'delighted' for the divorced American actress to join the royal family

At last! It's official!
Reports in today's press confirm that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have today announced they are engaged and will marry early next year, the couple have finally revealed.
The couple, who revealed they were an item a year ago after a six-month secret relationship, got engaged earlier this month in London and will marry in spring 2018, Kensington Palace said.
They will appear on national TV in the UK this evening to discuss their engagement and wedding just 16 months after they got together after being introduced by a mutual friend in May 2016.
Royal protocol dictated that the Queen had to give her grandson permission to marry the star just a week after she celebrated her own 70th wedding anniversary and in a statement she and Prince Philip said:  'delighted for the couple and wish them every happiness'.
His brother William and sister-in-law Kate said in a joint statement: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said of the engagement: 'We are very excited for Harry and Meghan. It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together'.
Harry also asked Meghan's parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, who divorced when their daughter was six, for her hand in marriage before popping the question a few weeks ago, it emerged today.
They said: 'Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents'.
Harry, 33, and his American fiancee, 36, have not said where they will hold the ceremony but if they choose the UK most senior royals marry at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral or the chapel at Windsor Castle.
Meghan, who is divorced, could become a princess or alternatively be given the title Duchess of Sussex when she marries the fifth in line to the throne and joins the royal family.
But they are likely to wait until Prince William and Kate have their third child, which is due in April.

German parents in court over baby name

Many of us will remember the horror movie "The Omen" Those of us who do, will also remember the "devil child" in the film, was called Damien. It was surprising therefore , when Del Boy from the TV series "Only Fools and Horses" decided to call his firstborn Damien.
A German couple has decided to change the name of their baby after a closed door court hearing.
The couple, from Kassel in central Germany, tried to register their newborn son as ‘Lucifer’ but were prevented from doing so by an official in the local registry office. Under German law, a baby’s name can be rejected if officials believe it will endanger the child’s wellbeing. Therefore, names that could lead to the child being ridiculed or names which are deemed offensive can be blocked by the courts.
Although Lucifer means ‘bearer of light’, it has much more obvious associations with the devil. As a result it is actually banned as a name for children in several countries such as New Zealand.
During the closed door hearing, the parents decided not to fight for this name so the court did not have to make a ruling one way or the other. They instead agreed on the much less Satanic Lucian.
In contrast to the German system, the UK is one of the most liberal countries in the world when it comes to what parents can name their children. There are virtually no restrictions on what babies can be called. Over the years, British babies have been given names like Superman, Gandalf and Gazza.
Despite this freedom, one in five British parents grows to regret the name they chose for their child. However this is usually not because the name is odd, as a quarter of remorseful parents say the reason for their dissatisfaction is that it is too common.

A bit too Deucey! Facebook BANS tennis club's charity calendar because it claims the pictures are 'sexually suggestive'

An amateur tennis club had its naked charity calendar banned by Facebook after the social media site said their pictures were 'sexually suggestive'.

Members of the Belper Tennis Club in Derbyshire stripped off and posed with yellow and green balls protecting their modesty for the tongue-in-cheek photoshoot.

One female player was pictured laying in a bathtub full of tennis balls while another member held up a giant ball after taking his clothes off.

They made the 'Anyone for Tennis?' 2018 calendar to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society but were told to remove the black-and-white images from Facebook.

acebook got in touch with the group because the photographs breached their strict rules on nudity.  

Photographer Ashley Franklin, 62, took the snaps and has blasted Facebook, saying the ruling 'beggars belief'.

He said: 'I was approached to take some pictures of a tennis club for a charity calendar and jumped at it.

'We did a great shoot, cheeky shots of the members covering their modesty with yellow tennis balls.

'To get some interest going and promote it, I posted some pictures on Facebook but soon received a snotty message from Facebook saying it broke their rules on nudity.

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'Women are equal to everything': Lady Hale lives up to her motto

The first female president of the supreme court and the youngest lord chief justice in 50 years have been sworn in.

Brenda Hale’s appointment to the leading role at the UK’s highest court was announced by
Downing Street in July.

A longstanding champion of diversity in the judiciary, she became the first female justice of the court in October 2009 and was appointed deputy president in June 2013.

Onlookers applauded at the ceremony on Monday, which marks the start of the legal year. 
The supreme court also welcomed Jonathan Mance as deputy president, as well as three new judges, including a second female justice, Jill Black.

Lady Hale, 72, who was born in Yorkshire and succeeds Lord Neuberger in the role, has had a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer and judge. During her time as deputy president, she ruled on cases including the article 50 appeal.

In a separate ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Sir Ian Burnett was sworn in as lord chief justice. The court of appeal judge, 59, takes over as head of the judiciary of England and Wales from Lord Thomas, who held the position from 2013 and retired on 1 October.

Burnett, who lives in Essex with his wife and children, has been involved in many high-profile cases and inquiries during his career, including acting as counsel to the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.

His new responsibilities include representing the views of the judiciary to parliament and the government.

Speaking at the ceremony, he said: “At times of great change, the central role of the judiciary upholding the rule of law remains a constant, as do our impartiality and independence.

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Older men’s health suffers with wealthier wives

The study was published in the academic Journal of Aging and Health.
Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey found this was especially the case for men born between 1931 and 1941 who would now be in their 70s and 80s. They appeared to have poor overall health and this was worse if their wives began earning more than they did early on in their marriages.
This pattern was identified following an analysis of health and income data for 1,095 couples over 30 years. The figures were taken from the National Institute on Aging’s Health and Retirement study.
Study author Kristen Springer suggested that social expectations could be to blame for such a finding. Men of that era could feel additional stress if they lived in a household with a female breadwinner because they were expected to be the provider.
Many Americans still retain this attitude. In 1977, two thirds thought it was “generally better for a marriage if a husband earns more than his wife” and 40 per cent of people over 65 still thought this was true in 2013, according to Springer’s research.

The rules parents don’t expect to make

I noticed an amusing article on the Marilyn Stowe recent blog.
Raising a child can be one of the most rewarding experiences of a person’s life, but it never comes without challenges. Parents must act as protectors, advocates and guides for the children while they are young – and many continue to do so even after their kids have become adults in their own right.
Rules are important in childhood. They help shape a child’s perspective and how they will interact with the wider world. Some are pretty universal, such as “be polite”.
However life is unpredictable. Sometimes parents end up creating household rules that they never could have imagined when their child first arrived. Parents on social media site Reddit discussed the quirky and unexpected rules they have found themselves enforcing.
These included “No dark arts in the house”. This particularly odd rule was drawn up after the parent’s children were playing Harry Potter, or “running around waving wands at each other”, and a loud argument ensued after one child put a curse on the other. While this response may sound sensible, one commenter jokingly added that “kids need to explore the dark arts as a means of coming to terms with the existence of evil”.
Another user had to institute a “No haunting the neighbours” rule after their daughter was caught whispering things like “You have dishonored your ancestors” into the vents of their apartment building. Apparently one of their elderly neighbours actually thought he could hear a ghost.
However most were a little less supernatural in nature. One parent has had to implement a “No headbutting at the dinner table” rule for one of their children. The siblings were seven and three years old and while the oldest was described as “so gentle and timid” the youngest was “an absolute psycho with zero fear”. You can probably guess which one the rule was created for.
Another rule came from a parent whose family all support different teams: “If your sports team loses and you are upset, go to your room until you calm down”. Others offered in the conversation included “Don’t write on your siblings”, “No cats in the laundry shoot” (even if “they like it”), “No banana fights” and “No crayons in the butter”.
One of the more bizarre ones, however, was “No machetes on the trampoline”. It would be quite easy to dismiss this one as a joke but, considering some of the others, there’s a chance a household somewhere in the world has this rule in place.