Sparkling Adventures Blog

[August]

They're the really stubby ones, not the sharper tipped school scissors. How'd he cut himself with them?

The cupcake post

Sparkling Adventures -- Another attempt at playgroup

www.sparklingadventures dot com/index.php?id=405

9 posts - 2 authors - 27 Aug 2008

Under the pretext of celebrating Brioni's birthday, I gave Tuesday's playgroup another shot with some elaborately decorated buttermilk ...

[Dysfundamental]

I don't have children, but I had neglectful parents, so I hate to see neglectful parenting.

My brother still has a scar from where he cut his arm on scissors like that. If you fall against the metal blade, they cut you even though the very tips aren't pointed.

But keep white-knighting Her Sparkliness, August. I feel terrible for those children, because I had neglectful parents and I know just how shitty that can be. (And my parents at least provided a house and sent us to school and encouraged us to brush our hair and teeth and didn't kill any of us, so they were miles ahead of Lauren and David!)

[lilith]

He scraped the blade against his skin. It cut.

[happy atheist]

He scraped the blade against his skin. It cut.

That's a great and sparkling way to let him practice his medical skills so he can be a homeschooled doctor! :lol:

If Lauren thinks Calista's going to grow up to be a beautician, then I think the rest of us can play, too.

[lilith]

That's a great and sparkling way to let him practice his medical skills so he can be a homeschooled doctor! :lol:

If Lauren thinks Calista's going to grow up to be a beautician, then I think the rest of us can play, too.

Yes! He can be a surgeon! I'll get him his very own scalpel, cause I won't patronise him by getting him childish toys instead of real tools (he is nearly 6, after all) and he can practice on his brothers! By the time he's 18 he'll be a freelance barber surgeon. Who needs those pesky universities and qualifications.....

[Witsec7]

Yes! He can be a surgeon! I'll get him his very own scalpel, cause I won't patronise him by getting him childish toys instead of real tools (he is nearly 6, after all) and he can practice on his brothers! By the time he's 18 he'll be a freelance barber surgeon. Who needs those pesky universities and qualifications.....

Buy him some small mammals to go with the scalpel. Perfect practice makes perfect.

[lilith]

Buy him some small mammals to go with the scalpel. Perfect practice makes perfect.

I would never be cruel to a furry small mammal. What kind of monster to you think I am? He's got a perfectly good brother and sister he can practice on, and I can always birth more if it takes him a while to find the intuitive surgeon skills that I am sure are there.

[Cerdwin]

I learnt something today! I was a third culture kid. I had no idea that there was a name for it. I have always answered 'where are you from?' with 'all over the place' and called my childhood 'unconventional'. I know that my childhood has had a profound effect on my adult life, so I can see how it would make it hard for Lauren to find her niche. I love moving house, and can change towns with hardly a glance behind me. Although my husband's job means that we have not moved for years, and ar not likely to move, I am always planning in my head where I'd like to live next.

[Cerdwin]

The knot at the back of Calista's head has me cringing. The poor girl hasn't seen a hairbrush in a while. I'd love to spend an hour with her, a brush and a bottle of strawberry scented detangling spray.

[lilith]

The knot at the back of Calista's head has me cringing. The poor girl hasn't seen a hairbrush in a while. I'd love to spend an hour with her, a brush and a bottle of strawberry scented detangling spray.

Lauren posted this on instagram a while ago, I think a good part of it may be from the back of Calista's head. Poor baby.

[lilith]

Also this.

It really doesn't look comfortable, but I know toddlers crash in weird places and positions.

[lilith]

I find it kind of disturbing that they are sleeping in the van, which can't be terribly secure, and we know she let's the girls sleep outside in a tent without her, and she's posting to instagram and including her location, not just the town but the street.

Those girls will be very lucky to escape childhood without more major traumas.

[Cerdwin]

Eww, I skimmed past the hair ball on Instagram because yuck. I didn't even notice the name.

[freejoytoo]

I can't believe she gives her little girl scissors to play with. She's a toddler!

I'm just reading some of the older posts during the conservative Christian days. Weirdly similar in lots of ways, IMO.

[August]

I'm not white knighting her sparkliness, I'm pointing out when you go beyond the realm of legitimate criticism into ridiculous nit picking of perfectly normal parenting. Almost everyone I know has scissors out for their kids of that age. A few don't, because they either have kids with impulse control issues or are gunshy from hair cutting incidents. And, yes, you do have that conversation as parents. It makes a change from talking about toilets.

She lets her kids handle circular saw blades, and you're picking on the toddler scissors? Get some perspective.

[Guest Anonymous]

I find it kind of disturbing that they are sleeping in the van, which can't be terribly secure, and we know she let's the girls sleep outside in a tent without her, and she's posting to instagram and including her location, not just the town but the street.

Those girls will be very lucky to escape childhood without more major traumas.

On a practical level, I still don't get the bed that they use, suspended over the van seats. I get that it is most probably safe, since she wrote about it in her 'let's convince the authorities to let me go on my way' period.

I have camped and enjoyed 'making do' on short trips throughout my life, but I can't understand how that can be comfortable or healthy long-term. Lauren herself says she spends long periods awake in the night if one of the kids kicks her or rolls over in their sleep. The same must be true for all of them. No wonder poor little Aisha chooses to sleep in the cupboard instead.

And I almost can't believe I wrote that last sentence, as though sleeping in a cupboard is a remotely normal thing for a child to have to do. :?

[Guest Anonymous]

Lauren posted this on instagram a while ago, I think a good part of it may be from the back of Calista's head. Poor baby.

Shit. I have seen kids get matted hair before now, but what the hell was matted into it?!

[kittengrrl]

Hi, I've been attempting to sparkle and read this monstrosity of a blog (I've skimmed the newer stuff but went back to the beginning and now I am stuck in 2010 and it hurts). I think Lauren is one of those people who desperately wants to fit in somewhere but hates to admit it and therefore must do everything to extremes to try to fit in with whatever group she likes this week. She resents the hell out of it the whole time because she invariably ends up alienating everyone in her group of the week and doesn't quite get that maybe she's the common variable in all her failed attempts at fitting in.

I have a few questions:

a) Did David have some kind of messiah complex/mental illness start developing in 2010? The youtube channel, the church acting out which seemed to then progress to much beard growth and sparkling adventures. Even the death of Elijah could be seen as an act of some sort of god complex-like he was sacrificing his only son or something like that.

b) Does anyone else think they killed their poor dog? And who takes pictures of poor dying animals???

c) I've looked up the Rainbow Gathering groups and wanted to know what your average participant is like outside of the gatherings. Is this a full time lifestyle for them or something more like special occasions but the average participant goes back to work on Monday kind of thing? I have a sinking feeling Lauren is not the average participant...

d) Does Australia keep their legal process private and not disclose much about crimes to the public? I know in the state I live in a lot of police documents are released before the case goes to trial in a lot of instances.

Thanks so much for answering my questions-I couldn't remember if they had been addressed before in the old thread and I think I suffered some sparkle damage reading her blog.

[August]

Shit. I have seen kids get matted hair before now, but what the hell was matted into it?!

That's out of a shower drain.

[Guest Anonymous]

Hi, I've been attempting to sparkle and read this monstrosity of a blog (I've skimmed the newer stuff but went back to the beginning and now I am stuck in 2010 and it hurts). I think Lauren is one of those people who desperately wants to fit in somewhere but hates to admit it and therefore must do everything to extremes to try to fit in with whatever group she likes this week. She resents the hell out of it the whole time because she invariably ends up alienating everyone in her group of the week and doesn't quite get that maybe she's the common variable in all her failed attempts at fitting in.

I have a few questions:

a) Did David have some kind of messiah complex/mental illness start developing in 2010? The youtube channel, the church acting out which seemed to then progress to much beard growth and sparkling adventures. Even the death of Elijah could be seen as an act of some sort of god complex-like he was sacrificing his only son or something like that.

b) Does anyone else think they killed their poor dog? And who takes pictures of poor dying animals???

c) I've looked up the Rainbow Gathering groups and wanted to know what your average participant is like outside of the gatherings. Is this a full time lifestyle for them or something more like special occasions but the average participant goes back to work on Monday kind of thing? I have a sinking feeling Lauren is not the average participant...

d) Does Australia keep their legal process private and not disclose much about crimes to the public? I know in the state I live in a lot of police documents are released before the case goes to trial in a lot of instances.

Thanks so much for answering my questions-I couldn't remember if they had been addressed before in the old thread and I think I suffered some sparkle damage reading her blog.

We have discussed most of this before. No probs to give a quick re-cap, but obviously if you want all the different nuanced perspectives then it'll be a case of looking it up on the old thread.

a) Who knows, but there was certainly a dramatic change in David starting in 2010. Nonetheless he did seem to be the most intuitive and demonstrative parent, imo, and before Elijah died, I would have not been surprised if any of the children came to an untimely end by falling out of a fire bath or disappearing forever with a stranger, but the drowning was and is a mystery to me.

b) Several of us. Note also that the universe provided similar opportunities for Lauren to prepare the children for death and grief on the days before each of the deaths of the family dog and of Elijah.

c) From my own research Lauren is not an 'average' Rainbow Family member.

d) Yup, very little has been revealed in the press from day 1, for legal reasons.

[pikachu]

Lauren's posts are an infinite cascade of TAKING. She takes, takes, takes, takes, takes. She couches it in phrases such as invited, welcomed, and shared, but really it's just taking.

Lauren says something like "We met a beautiful, authentic family today who shared a delicious, healthy meal with us. Our new friends invited us to use their washer and dryer and now we have lovely clean clothes. The children, who were gone at school for the morning, welcomed the girls into their playroom where they delighted in trying out all the new, interesting toys from the top shelves."

What really happened - a family at the market was approached by Lauren to chat, and she mentions how long it's been since the girls had a hot meal. The strangers do the right thing by having them over for lunch. The girls spread to every corner of the house, opening cabinets and pulling cherished items from shelves. While they explore unsupervised, Lauren then hinted or outright asked to use their laundry facilities, and when they agreed, she put the girls bathtub too, and rushed back to her computer to post about the interaction, leaving a trail of filthy water dripped everywhere and a very confused family in her wake who wonder what just happened.

It's just taking.

[OkToBeTakei]

Lauren's posts are an infinite cascade of TAKING. She takes, takes, takes, takes, takes. She couches it in phrases such as invited, welcomed, and shared, but really it's just taking.

Lauren says something like "We met a beautiful, authentic family today who shared a delicious, healthy meal with us. Our new friends invited us to use their washer and dryer and now we have lovely clean clothes. The children, who were gone at school for the morning, welcomed the girls into their playroom where they delighted in trying out all the new, interesting toys from the top shelves."

What really happened - a family at the market was approached by Lauren to chat, and she mentions how long it's been since the girls had a hot meal. The strangers do the right thing by having them over for lunch. The girls spread to every corner of the house, opening cabinets and pulling cherished items from shelves. While they explore unsupervised, Lauren then hinted or outright asked to use their laundry facilities, and when they agreed, she put the girls bathtub too, and rushed back to her computer to post about the interaction, leaving a trail of filthy water dripped everywhere and a very confused family in her wake who wonder what just happened.

It's just taking.

Nothing to add. Except I really like your user name :D

[CheeseDeprived]

Lauren's posts are an infinite cascade of TAKING. She takes, takes, takes, takes, takes. She couches it in phrases such as invited, welcomed, and shared, but really it's just taking.

Lauren says something like "We met a beautiful, authentic family today who shared a delicious, healthy meal with us. Our new friends invited us to use their washer and dryer and now we have lovely clean clothes. The children, who were gone at school for the morning, welcomed the girls into their playroom where they delighted in trying out all the new, interesting toys from the top shelves."

What really happened - a family at the market was approached by Lauren to chat, and she mentions how long it's been since the girls had a hot meal. The strangers do the right thing by having them over for lunch. The girls spread to every corner of the house, opening cabinets and pulling cherished items from shelves. While they explore unsupervised, Lauren then hinted or outright asked to use their laundry facilities, and when they agreed, she put the girls bathtub too, and rushed back to her computer to post about the interaction, leaving a trail of filthy water dripped everywhere and a very confused family in her wake who wonder what just happened.

It's just taking.

Yes, yes, yes! It's becoming more obvious with every blog post and is getting on my nerves because it's just not appropriate behaviour for such a sparkly, enlightened being. ;)

No, seriously - they arrive somewhere, and they just take over. They climb on museum exhibits with dirty bare feet, they snip away at random plants (to mention just a couple of recent examples), she posts pictures of her sister's bedroom, she posts the names and locations of people (not to mention photos and other details), the kids just swoop in and "explore", as you so nicely put it, they use the bath, the laundry, the computer, the TV, the toys... everything. And what could she possibly have to offer in return?

Not that there's anything wrong with inviting people into your home and sharing if you wish to... but talk about taking advantage! I bet it often is as you say and people are left scratching their heads, wondering what on earth possessed them to invite this woman in the first place.

And I guess it's easier to attract invites when you have a bunch of kids who really do look to be in desperate need of a bath, a set of clean clothes and a hot meal...

[kittengrrl]

Thanks anniec! I had a feeling I had read a lot about the earlier stuff in the other thread but like I said "sparkle damage" lol. I also tend to get her, Hellenna and Currieddong mixed up after too much exposure.

Snarking aside, I do wish she would just stop running away from everything and let her poor kids heal. When I read the Christmas present post it was like David was just another fan of her sparkleness, not her husband or father of her kids. Talk about detachment from reality. I am assuming she will have to stop her wild adventure when the trial happens. That is going to be good at all.

[lilith]

Just a note about the legal process and the press - in a case involving minors the Australian press tries not to publish identifying details, which would be why they aren't all over the blog content.

Also, David has only appeared for administrative court dates, no evidence has been heard yet. I'm sure it will be reported when he goes to trial, or sentence if he pleads.