Sparkling Lauren, a super special sparkling surrogacy and a "gayby"

[flubber]

From her recent blog post:

Actually, August is still winter in Australia, even though temperatures vary wildly across the country due to it's size, but yep, still officially winter no how much you may not want it to be. â„ï¸

Edit: Being another voracious reader, I read Anne Frank when I was around Aisha's age too, but like the other posters above, I hadn't been through the loss of a baby brother etc. Aisha has.

I'd have to agree with her. We haven't really had a winter here (Nth NSW/SE QLD) this year, and the weather is definitely unseasonably warm and spring like.

As for the day in a home schooler's life - well that's just like a weekend day for my kids. Except more reading and reasonably regular meals.

[utter solitude]

I read it when I was nine, but I wasn't traveling the world with a gypsy mother who couldn't be bothered to properly take care of me, who didn't want me to grieve the death of my brother, and who was also about to give away another brother.

The baby Lauren is surrogating is not her daughters' brother. Biologically, yes, but by Lauren's own words, the boy she's carrying will not be brought home to Australia with them. His parents will be the gold star gays, not Lauren.

Lauren needs to be cementing the fact that they baby she's carrying is not their "brother", and hopefully she is, alhough I kind of doubt it.

[16strong]

Good lord. Please don't let this woman bring her crazy to North America. :?

[Cheetah]

Good lord. Please don't let this woman bring her crazy to North America. :?

In the past 2 weeks I've spent time in both Santa Cruz and the Haight street area of SF and both times I've thought of Lauren... she'd probably fit in better than I do....

[flubber]

Good lord. Please don't let this woman bring her crazy to North America. :?

Don't worry, she wont stay, she can't get a tax payer funded free ride over there!

[DaffyDill]

I'd have to agree with her. We haven't really had a winter here (Nth NSW/SE QLD) this year, and the weather is definitely unseasonably warm and spring like.

As for the day in a home schooler's life - well that's just like a weekend day for my kids. Except more reading and reasonably regular meals.

Oh I get that it's been quite warmer than usual for this time of year, I just took her to be saying we are in early spring (as in the season) which we're not, even though it may feel like it. (Off topic sort of: Summer is going to be horrendous if things keep warming up the way they are! I am not a fan of +30C heat, and humidity is worse :()

[amster]

It's been super wet here in NSW the last few days, so it's certainly not feeling like Spring where I am...

[flubber]

Oh I get that it's been quite warmer than usual for this time of year, I just took her to be saying we are in early spring (as in the season) which we're not, even though it may feel like it. (Off topic sort off: Summer is going to be horrendous if things keep warming up the way they are!)

Yep it is going to be awful. It's already super dry up here and they are predicting a horrid busfire season - that has already started.

[flubber]

It's been super wet here in NSW the last few days, so it's certainly not feeling like Spring where I am...

We'll take some of your rain! It did rain on the weekend, but even that didn't make it very cold.

[DaffyDill]

We'll take some of your rain! It did rain on the weekend, but even that didn't make it very cold.

We got heaps of rain; around 120 to 130 mms - I'm outer SW Sydney. Much needed though, everything was SO dry.

Bushfire season is gonna be hell - it freaks me out cos I was in the area (Upper Beaconsfield) burnt out by Ash Wednesday in Victoria in the 80's. Knew ppl who were killed, lost their homes, nearly lost ours... So a whiff of bushfire smoke on the wind in summer, and I get panicky :( and want to run.

[Mama Mia]

From her recent blog post:

Actually, August is still winter in Australia, even though temperatures vary wildly across the country due to it's size, but yep, still officially winter no how much you may not want it to be. â„ï¸

No offense but " it's an early spring this year" is a really common expression , it just means it's warmer than usual for the time of year / plants are growing early...that kind of thing. It doesn't have anything to do with someone thinking the actual dates have changed.

[DaffyDill]

None taken, but yeah, we'd pretty much established that... :D

[Annasopinion]

Anyone else notice the update to the siderail?

"Looking forward:

Europe

Our travels will take us to the northern hemisphere for autumn, but the girls are still hoping to experience snow!

North America?

Funds permitting, we intend to visit in 2016 but won't plan an itinerary until late 2015."

I noticed that Lauren mentioned they were going next month and I'm sure they'll be heading off sooner than everyone expects. I think after all the buzz attention around surrogacy in Australia that Lauren will be leaving sooner and when she's not showing so obviously too. She could still easily cover up her pregnancy right now

[Annasopinion]

A typical non schooling day? Did her children manage to eat 500 calories apiece that day? My mum did my hair, fed me, let me forage, listened to me read, told me to go play and let me watch TV and that was in the time allocated before and after SCHOOL!

Lauren, you are not "home schooling" you are educating your daughters to a life of layabouts. What a hideous, stupid waste. I'm all for homeschooling because it means that turned on parents can educate their children to a high and completely customised degree. You are not educating them AT ALL. What you call education is really free time to kill between bus stops.

[Blahblah]

She isn't homeschooling. She is unschooling. It's apparently an osmotic process by which she completely ignores anything vaguely resembling real education and allows her girls to instead absorb whatever they can by playing with "kipi"s, wandering about unsupervised, not wearing shoes, scavenging food, catching ticks, embedding prickles in their eye, cutting each other's hair, playing with saw blades while suspended high on a forklift, having a bath over an open fire, swimming in unfamiliar water unsupervised after their brother drowned etc.

And pretty much anything that she holds up as an example of a learning experience (museums, farms, nature walks etc) is just the stuff that everyone else does IN ADDITION to going to school.

[Marianne]

She isn't homeschooling. She is unschooling. It's apparently an osmotic process by which she completely ignores anything vaguely resembling real education and allows her girls to instead absorb whatever they can by playing with "kipi"s, wandering about unsupervised, not wearing shoes, scavenging food, catching ticks, embedding prickles in their eye, cutting each other's hair, playing with saw blades while suspended high on a forklift, having a bath over an open fire, swimming in unfamiliar water unsupervised after their brother drowned etc.

And pretty much anything that she holds up as an example of a learning experience (museums, farms, nature walks etc) is just the stuff that everyone else does IN ADDITION to going to school.

How do you learn division whith unschooling ? To write ? To read ? That Spain Civil War was in 1936-1939 ? About the war Italy/Ethiopa ? About all this boring things that you don't want to learn but you have to learn ? (Home)Schooling is not about loving all that you do (even if it's better), but learning things that will be usefull in your future life, even if it's boring. Children who have never learn/do things that they don't love/hate like maths and geology - okay, I shut up will not be able to function in our world.

[FJismyheadship]

I know the baby is only their brother biologically, but like you said, she needs to be cementing that this child is NOT going to grow up with them, going to live with another couple forever, etc.

Hey, what happens if when she leaves the baby, she also leaves her kids behind? For the Icelandic couple to raise.

[BeaSnarky]

She isn't homeschooling. She is unschooling. It's apparently an osmotic process by which she completely ignores anything vaguely resembling real education and allows her girls to instead absorb whatever they can by playing with "kipi"s, wandering about unsupervised, not wearing shoes, scavenging food, catching ticks, embedding prickles in their eye, cutting each other's hair, playing with saw blades while suspended high on a forklift, having a bath over an open fire, swimming in unfamiliar water unsupervised after their brother drowned etc.

And pretty much anything that she holds up as an example of a learning experience (museums, farms, nature walks etc) is just the stuff that everyone else does IN ADDITION to going to school.

I'm sorry, but I just read that entry and she lost me when she said she picks nits and lice from the girls' hair daily. DAILY.

Can't you just say, "I love combing my girls' hair"...LICE people...LICE

Those poor girls...what are they going to put down for education on their job applications? "Well, I burried my platypus toy in the sand...does that count?"

Lice...ugh...I'm itchy all over now.

[August]

Best practice after a lice outbreak is to pick their hair over every day for ten days, take a week off, then again with the daily picking. And lice shampoos don't work any more. So yeah, little ol'suburban shoe wearing dreadless me has spent several periods of time this ear doing daily nitpicking. Damn that school. Another advantage of unscho...wait.

if I had gotten up earlier to blog and was more tired, I know I could take a nap. It’s enough for me today to go down to the river’s edge and watch the water slip by. I’m within sight and sound of the bus, and I let each girl know individually where I’m headed.

This. makes. me. rage. stroke. You'd SLEEP and leave your four year old unsupervised in a car next to a river? BITCH. She pulled this in Tasmania, too, a couple of years ago.

[Four is Enough]

OK, I just found this woman's blog. She is nuts, no?

[DarkAnts]

Best practice after a lice outbreak is to pick their hair over every day for ten days, take a week off, then again with the daily picking. And lice shampoos don't work any more. So yeah, little ol'suburban shoe wearing dreadless me has spent several periods of time this ear doing daily nitpicking. Damn that school. Another advantage of unscho...wait.

This. makes. me. rage. stroke. You'd SLEEP and leave your four year old unsupervised in a car next to a river? BITCH. She pulled this in Tasmania, too, a couple of years ago.

My sister did this but she included olive oil treatments. The kids would have their hair covered in olive oil. They would wear shower caps for an hour and then get combed out. Every day for three weeks. The only bright side is that the girls hair looked amazing and soft.

[Artemis]

When's she planning on going to Iceland?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28843968

(Not breaking link because it's the BBC!) Would be amusing if Icelandic airspace was closed and she couldn't get in - or possibly if she got in and couldn't get out.

O/T Any geology people on here interested in volcanos, this link http://baering.github.io/ has the most fantastic 3D visual of the earthquake swarm that's currently happning in the site where the eruption might take place.

[flubber]

Best practice after a lice outbreak is to pick their hair over every day for ten days, take a week off, then again with the daily picking. And lice shampoos don't work any more. So yeah, little ol'suburban shoe wearing dreadless me has spent several periods of time this ear doing daily nitpicking. Damn that school. Another advantage of unscho...wait.

This. makes. me. rage. stroke. You'd SLEEP and leave your four year old unsupervised in a car next to a river? BITCH. She pulled this in Tasmania, too, a couple of years ago.

That gets me too! Sure we all love a little nana nap - but not if it = unsupervised kids! When we camp it just doesn't happen as someone needs to keep an eye on or ear out for the kids.

My girls aren’t inclined to take risks beyond their perceived levels of comfort. They won’t try climbing down (or up) the cliff face, they aren’t inclined to jump off tree-branches into the murky water, and they’ll only wander as far as they feel comfortable. Their own vast range of experiences in the outdoors has fostered knowledge and sensibilities, and that — as well as their usual habit of exploring with at least one other sibling — means that I feel comfortable with letting them explore the natural playground.

And the more comfortable kids get, the further they are likely to explore, in the bush, in the middle of nowhere, with no cell reception.

PS - there are heaps of good nit shampoos out there - you just gotta find the right one.

[Mama Mia]

That gets me too! Sure we all love a little nana nap - but not if it = unsupervised kids! When we camp it just doesn't happen as someone needs to keep an eye on or ear out for the kids.

And the more comfortable kids get, the further they are likely to explore, in the bush, in the middle of nowhere, with no cell reception.

PS - there are heaps of good nit shampoos out there - you just gotta find the right one.

It depends on the lice. Many have become resistant to ALL of the types of shampoos.

A good method, in addition to the daily, time consuming, nit picking - is to smoother their hair in mayonnaise, cover in a disposable shower cap and leave on for 12(?) hours, then wash out and resume nitpicking. And,of course, you have to wash EVERYTHING in hot water etc....

As a preventative, I know an old remedy is to comb tomato juice through the kids hair, I guess the lice don't like it.

[Blahblah]

On the lice thing - what is going on with her own hair? Lice + dreads is not good. No way she could get them out. No wonder the girls always have them.