Meet Hellena and Currawong

[happy atheist]

I'm de-lurking to share this: janetfraser.id.au/blog/2012/09/04/guest-post-birth-sex-and-death-hellena-post/ (I hope I've deactivated the link properly). Apparently my love of sunglasses and handbags means that I actually want to replace my placenta with some other precious object attached to me on a string.

She writes so. fucking. much. 3500 words for this post, and she never actually makes a coherent point! She laments that we clean up after birth, sex, and death. Yes, Hellena, that's called hygiene. It stops (or slows) the spread of disease. That's a good thing, in case you were wondering.

[emmiedahl]

Can you give us some documentation about this, as I live in a county with a very high rate of whooping cough and record low levels of immunization.

Do we live in the same county?

I am interested in this also. My county had a whooping cough outbreak a few years ago, so they began a huge effort to make sure everyone was re-vaccinated. This spring we had an outbreak that set records and it was all unvaccinated children. If we have a record outbreak of entirely unvaccinated children, I am not sure how the vaccine is at fault. Seems like the vaccine did its job, considering that my daughter sat two desks away from a boy who hacked his lungs out into her air for a day or two before he was diagnosed and she did not get sick.

[ExCatholic]

Not a problem :) There are many misconceptions out there about unschoolers.

Like experienedd said, it's about taking your daily life and using it to give your child an education. It's also a lot about listening to your child and finding out what drives them and helping them to learn what they want to learn. We travelled a lot as kids, spent 7 months in an rv in the US. If we were in the southwest we learned about the Mexican/Spanish history of the area, learned some Spanish, studied geology in the mountains, learned about the atomic programe in New Mexico and on. In the PacNW it was foresty, Native American tribes, Lewis and Clarke, Sacijawea (sp?), volcanos, flora and fauna in the state Parks, in the south it was civil rights, the civil war, hurricanes, we stayed with friends on the bayou in LA and ate local food and on and on. Each day we calculate milage, distance, cost of fuel, we learned why different products cost different prices in different areas, we met people from many different cultures and back grounds.

When we came home my sister was interested in gardening, animals, the Japanese culture and drawing, so my mother got her a Japanese tutor, she learned caligraphy, planted a garden, worked at the SPCA and took art classes. From her interest in animals and gardening, she went on to study natural nutrition and graduated top of her class. She is now studying to be a massage therapist in Australia and is also currently top of her class.

My interests lay more in books and reading the outdoors and nannying. I worked at the local library, wrote, took creative writing classes, worked at a daycare (and decided it wasn't for me), went on lots of tramps, planted trees, did conservation work with the government, and eventually, 20 years later, am working in an indie bookshop and raising a child. :) My parents helped facilitate my learning and gave me an amazing education.

Do you see the difference between unschoolers and H&C?

Unschoolers generally don't follow a curriculum like homeschoolers do, but still believe strongly in getting the best education for their children. From what I've seen of H&C, they're just lazy parents. Nothing like the unschooling parents I know.

Real unschooling seems like so. much. work. The amount of effort and thoughtfulness required are just so far beyond H&C and other crappy unschoolers that have been discussed on this board that its laughable. Playing in the mud =/= unschooling!

[aubrietta]

Do we live in the same county?

I am interested in this also. My county had a whooping cough outbreak a few years ago, so they began a huge effort to make sure everyone was re-vaccinated. This spring we had an outbreak that set records and it was all unvaccinated children. If we have a record outbreak of entirely unvaccinated children, I am not sure how the vaccine is at fault. Seems like the vaccine did its job, considering that my daughter sat two desks away from a boy who hacked his lungs out into her air for a day or two before he was diagnosed and she did not get sick.

There have been a lot of Whooping Cough outbreaks in Canada, and a friend of mine is an ICU nurse in a children's hospital. She said that some kids who are immunized still get whooping cough, but the severity of it is extremely reduced, and they are not the kids landing in the hospital from it - it is the unvaxed kids who get it and become acutely ill.

[chaotic life]

That guest post by Hellena has no coherent thesis to it. It's lots of words, lots of musings on birth, life, death but nothing of substance except to hear herself talk.

Anyway, she knows NOTHING about death rituals. She imagines she knows. Death rituals are for the living, not for the dead. YES, you clean up after death. You clean up both to prevent the spread of disease but also so that the living are not traumatized by the process of death.

Hospice allowed me to stay as they prepared my son's body. Typically they have the family leave. I certainly remember when I was the nurse I had families step out when I prepared a body for viewing and transportation in a hospital setting. Siblings surrounded my son as he died. However, hospice created momentos. They took locks of his hair. They made a plaster mold of his handprint. They cleaned him and dressed him in the clothes his siblings choose for him to wear when he left us. Then, his siblings came to say good-bye one last time.

I am not going to apologize for cleaning up death. I didn't need nightmares, nor did his siblings. They needed to see death as extended sleep, something they could let their brother go into without losing all of their hearts and sanities in the breaking loss.

Hellena knows nothing of death, especially the kind of death that destroys your heart and soul. She can write and criticize death rituals when she has to experience them as the mother first. Until, she should leave death rituals to those who must endure them, since those rituals are totally about the living and not the dead in the first place.

Her hostess for that drivel though, isn't quite as slick as she imagines herself.

She is clearly over run with bourgeois notions and pastimes and therefore with sufficient time to advocate revolutions of various kinds in the best white, middle class tradition.

I wonder if she understands she just totally trashed herself and called herself an elitist snob who wants to rule the world? Of course, there's no middle class in Marx and bourgeois is NOT middle class, nor something desirable. At the very least if she didn't want to identify herself as proletariat, she could have called herself intelligensia, which is not quite as bad as bragging about being a wealthy snob :lol:

[amydamy]

That guest post by Hellena has no coherent thesis to it. It's lots of words, lots of musings on birth, life, death but nothing of substance except to hear herself talk.

The sums up most of what she writes. I have the same tendency of letting my thought meander around when I write. I've learned now to go back and delete anything unrelated to my main point. I forget what I'm supposed to be reading about half way through each of her posts and then just kind of skim since I'm never anywhere near done when I lose the thread of what ever she's talking about.

[longskirtlotsakids]

I also think she knows very little about animal husbandry. I birth pleanty lower creatures and they always clean they babies, their areas up after birth. They also choose the cleanest area after birth.

Our higher thinking brains have enabled us to *refine* the instinct towards cleanliness.

[Sola]

She writes so. fucking. much. 3500 words for this post, and she never actually makes a coherent point! She laments that we clean up after birth, sex, and death. Yes, Hellena, that's called hygiene. It stops (or slows) the spread of disease. That's a good thing, in case you were wondering.

She has a bad case of verbal diarrhoea. Worst still, she wont clean it up.

[OkToBeTakei]

COWABUNGA!

That is all.

[Terrie]

So I don't carry a purse, or anything else on a cord or string. So much for womb craving.

[OkToBeTakei]

So I don't carry a purse, or anything else on a cord or string. So much for womb craving.

Failure.

I will crochet a prayer *hugs*

[terranova]

Real unschooling seems like so. much. work. The amount of effort and thoughtfulness required are just so far beyond H&C and other crappy unschoolers that have been discussed on this board that its laughable. Playing in the mud =/= unschooling!

This is it. Choosing to take your kids out of school is not a decision anyone makes lightly. Being a home/unschooling parent is a HUGE job. It's not for everyone, and it's certainly not for the lazy parents *coughH&Ccough*

[Peas n carrots]

She has a bad case of verbal diarrhoea. Worst still, she wont clean it up.

I tried reading the post, but after the third paragraph the Charlie Brown teacher voice started to replace the word salad of New Age jargon. WAH-WAAHHH, WAH-WAHWAH-WAH-WAH.

I grew bored and closed the window.

As a side note, I am all for Curradong nickname. It's very fitting.

[OkToBeTakei]

This is it. Choosing to take your kids out of school is not a decision anyone makes lightly. Being a home/unschooling parent is a HUGE job. It's not for everyone, and it's certainly not for the lazy parents *coughH&Ccough*

I think there is enough examples here to see how to do it. It absolutely is not my choice. But if it was I would know where to go. I wonder if Hellatrix even thinks about considering My lifestyle...I at least considered hers.

[MrsKay]

So my laptop is my placenta? Fascinating. Not.

I prefer Currydong as a nickname. With not washing away the milky substance of life after sex and all, I would imagine one's dong might get a little bit... whiffy... if you will.

[lilith]

There have been a lot of Whooping Cough outbreaks in Canada, and a friend of mine is an ICU nurse in a children's hospital. She said that some kids who are immunized still get whooping cough, but the severity of it is extremely reduced, and they are not the kids landing in the hospital from it - it is the unvaxed kids who get it and become acutely ill.

That was our experience. My (immunised) children were sick and uncomfortable, but their illness wasn't in any way as dangerous as it would have been in an unimmunised child.

[bionicmlle]

So my laptop is my placenta? Fascinating. Not.

I prefer Currydong as a nickname. With not washing away the milky substance of life after sex and all, I would imagine one's dong might get a little bit... whiffy... if you will.

I prefer Currydong as well.

And, thank you for helping me with my diet! I must be down one more pound after reading your post! woohoo!

[Witsec7]

I prefer Currydong as well.

And, thank you for helping me with my diet! I must be down one more pound after reading your post! woohoo!

I'm having a hard time with Currydong. I just made the best lentil curry of my life tonight and now a little bit came back up :oops:

[Wolfie]

Do we live in the same county?

I am interested in this also. My county had a whooping cough outbreak a few years ago, so they began a huge effort to make sure everyone was re-vaccinated. This spring we had an outbreak that set records and it was all unvaccinated children. If we have a record outbreak of entirely unvaccinated children, I am not sure how the vaccine is at fault. Seems like the vaccine did its job, considering that my daughter sat two desks away from a boy who hacked his lungs out into her air for a day or two before he was diagnosed and she did not get sick.

I think I'm a couple states south. The county where I live is mostly rural and has both a high population of hippie and fundie types who are the kind who don't trust modern medicine. (I think we've discussed in other threads that there are a lot of unpermitted "build your own" type settlements in the hills here.)

So far my immunizations are holding up, but I do worry when my nieces and nephews come up to visit and we go into town to do something.

[MrsKay]

My apologies. :oops: I still think it fits. Currapong, perhaps? Or is that too British? (I'm Canadian, but I read a lot of British and Australian books - I'm hip to your jargon :lol: ).

[aubrietta]

For FUCKS sake. According to Hellena's facebook, Lauren from Sparkling Adventures is loaning her trailer to Hellena so they can go on some sort of trip somewhere. All Australian crazies are best buds, it seems. Maybe Hellena could crochet some shoes for Lauren's kids in exchange.

[Chavymishmacoy]

For FUCKS sake. According to Hellena's facebook, Lauren from Sparkling Adventures is loaning her trailer to Hellena so they can go on some sort of trip somewhere. All Australian crazies are best buds, it seems. Maybe Hellena could crochet some shoes for Lauren's kids in exchange.

I doubt it Hellena is all about taking, and what other people do for her. There is no giving.

[longskirtlotsakids]

So my laptop is my placenta? Fascinating. Not.

I prefer Currydong as a nickname. With not washing away the milky substance of life after sex and all, I would imagine one's dong might get a little bit... whiffy... if you will.

OH. *Blurp*

Yee gods what a fucking mental picture. Thanks for giving me an instant appetite suppressant. Next time I have to exercise self control at the table I will think of this statement.

Dude. when your dong becomes an international diet aid, it's time to reconsider your life.

[eeemkaaayy]

I doubt it Hellena is all about taking, and what other people do for her. There is no giving.

Seriously yes. This woman is selfish beyond belief. And it's not just Australia. All the crazies are friends. Craziness attracts craziness I guess.

[longskirtlotsakids]

Sad common thread here it seems, that gives me the shivers. Lauren's great love drowned their son, and she is still 100% okely dokely sparkly happy about it, because, you know, she loved him. Hellana's stepdad molested her and her sister, but you know, since it stayed above the pants (allegedly) it's OK. And it just occurred to me that Currydong is a stepdad to the 17 year old girl.

Yep. It seems to me that both are in a seperate reality so they can escape responsibility for what the alpha male is doing, or did, to the children.