Australian Blogger's Son Dies- Sparkling Adventures

[bbfreethinker]

i hope by the term, "wee stick", that you mean your carefully preserved positive pregnany test. Nothing else would be holy enough for such sacred drummage.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[AnnC]

Are there any postings from people that know her, the kids, or met them as a family ? (Now or before the incident?)

We have our share of alternative lifestyle peeps in our area, but the kids would attract a lot of attention. Not the homeschooling so much, but their condition might raise a few flags.

Just wondering how they come off in person.

[lilith]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

You use nasty chemical pregnancy tests, made by multinational pharmaceutical companies?

The moon goddess tells me when I have been blessed with a new soul (or alien leach, whatevs) within me.

[lilith]

Are there any postings from people that know her, the kids, or met them as a family ? (Now or before the incident?)

We have our share of alternative lifestyle peeps in our area, but the kids would attract a lot of attention. Not the homeschooling so much, but their condition might raise a few flags.

Just wondering how they come off in person.

I grew up in Australia's alternative community, and I can assure you that Lauren and her crew would raise eyebrows among the first wave hippies.

I very much doubt the attendants at her free birth were all happy and willing. In fact, I would bet that most of them were terrified and wishing there was competent medical help available, but doing the best they could under the circumstances to help.

Also, someone called DOCS when Aisha was lost in the bush overnight. The only people there were fellow Rainbow Family members, so one of them must have called.

I suspect Lauren is quickly burning bridges within the alternative community as she becomes aware that it does have standards (that can at times be surprisingly middle class), especially when it comes to the welfare of children.

[Guest Anonymous]

I grew up in Australia's alternative community, and I can assure you that Lauren and her crew would raise eyebrows among the first wave hippies.

I very much doubt the attendants at her free birth were all happy and willing. In fact, I would bet that most of them were terrified and wishing there was competent medical help available, but doing the best they could under the circumstances to help.

Also, someone called DOCS when Aisha was lost in the bush overnight. The only people there were fellow Rainbow Family members, so one of them must have called.

I suspect Lauren is quickly burning bridges within the alternative community as she becomes aware that it does have standards (that can at times be surprisingly middle class), especially when it comes to the welfare of children.

AnnC, a few people have popped in and out of this thread who have said they know Lauren, but it is an extremely long thread and I can't think of a way for you to find them, except by reading through. Not all of them would necessarily have seen her in person though; from memory an old boarding school friend came here to defend her, and also a doula who did an online project with Lauren.

If you are interested in the 'sorts' of people that condone her lifestyle, then many of her commenters on FB or on her blog have links back to their own pages and their blogs. They seem to be a mixture of people with 'interesting' lifestyles of their own, or people who don't seem to have digested Lauren's blog posts in any real depth,

[Aisling]

You use nasty chemical pregnancy tests, made by multinational pharmaceutical companies?

The moon goddess tells me when I have been blessed with a new soul (or alien leach, whatevs) within me.

Quite right. I am disgusted, but sad for you, that you think I would ever sully my preggy vaginal aura with an actual pregnancy test. It's made of plastic, for goodness sake!

The moon fairies visited me one night and told me that I was pregnant. Of course, I already knew, because I am so in tune with my uterus that we have a weekly coffee date

(dandelion coffee OFC)

[Aisling]

I'll let you crash on my couch for a bodhran performance - rugalach are included, we don't do TTC as I immediately think of Trying To Conceive, which we prefer to not do when there's company around.

I got hooked on bodhran when I was introduced to Great Big Sea - a lady I know actually won a phone message, drummed on the bodhran and sung by GBS.

Ahhh, that is pretty damn cool! :lol:

[chaotic life]

It's amazingly telling that Lauren asserts in her NY resolutions that NOW she is blogging primarily for the girls and not herself.....she's been saying exactly that for SIX YEARS. I wonder if she cries it long enough does she start to believe her own lie? Even when she was mainstream, she swore the blog was all about keeping a record for the girls. The truth is that she's addicted to the blogging and to the attention she gets from the blogging. The blogging is for Lauren and the girls are secondary. It does appear her blogging is reduced so she can obssessively crochet these days, but she'll be back to obsessing over the blogging again.

It also appears that David gets all of his information about the girls via her blogging now. That seems to be what she is saying. I have to wonder if watching this descent is every bit of the living nightmare he feared that led him to crack when he knew all along if he did crack Lauren would forever neglect those girls without him.

[tankgirl]

I grew up in Australia's alternative community, and I can assure you that Lauren and her crew would raise eyebrows among the first wave hippies.

I very much doubt the attendants at her free birth were all happy and willing. In fact, I would bet that most of them were terrified and wishing there was competent medical help available, but doing the best they could under the circumstances to help.

Also, someone called DOCS when Aisha was lost in the bush overnight. The only people there were fellow Rainbow Family members, so one of them must have called.

I suspect Lauren is quickly burning bridges within the alternative community as she becomes aware that it does have standards (that can at times be surprisingly middle class), especially when it comes to the welfare of children.

I have to say I wondered about the freebirth too. I mean I am pretty hippyish in some of what I do, and I have connections to Hippy types because of some of my hobbies, but I can image a lot of people giving her WTF looks when they suddenly realised, "oh crap, she is birth'n a baby now!!!" I imagine some were just trying to get a connection on their mobile to find a way to get a Doctor out there, or at least wondering why this red lady wasn't doing it herself. She was quite a Sparkling little one thinking everyone would just love to see her push out a lil' leech right there during their party.

I personally also wondered if a few of the people who friended her like the psychologist aren't doing it to try and find a way to watch out for the kids or to try and lead Lauren in some way. I mean some of the friendships seem odd. The psychologist seemed like she was doing some play therapy or something with the girls in the activities Lauren mentioned and some of the pictures felt that way too . I almost hope this is true, just as I worry people who mean those kids harm aren't waiting to buddy up with Lauren too :(

Also I agree Lauren with her comments on "the blog is for the girls" is full of shit or an even worse Mom, if that is possible, and she really believes that. The women has posted some terrible things about her marriage that the kids never need to know about, and some of the comments she says about those girls crush me, and I am not her kid. The desperate comments about needing to talk to adults and how she says that, seem worded so mean towards those girls. Overall she shows over and over the blog means more then time with the girls, and those girls need time more then anything. They need hugs, warm meals, warm bathes, basic needs fufilled, not a crap blog with sad desperate pictures of those girls and an almost manaic need to make everyone including herself think every thing is so fucking sparkling. I don't blame Lauren from fearing going down the dark emotional hole after Eljah's death, but agree that all this false sparkling is going to lead to a break down of mass proportion, if she doesn't start to face her real emotions.

I have rarely been so desperate to go and steal some kids, I wish Lauren would just dump those girls with her family, and she could just sparkle away, untethered :( Hell if she was anywhere near me, I might even just fake friends with Lauren to let them stay, just so those girls could get some proper food and care.

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm not sure that Lauren actually has been befriended by a psychologist. If we are thinking of the same person, I think it was a 'counsellor', which is a much less regulated profession and really can mean anything, unless it is backed up with details of professional registration. The same person has a FB page which indicates she seems to do a lot of random picking up of lost causes and, while her heart may be in the right place, there is no concrete evidence that she is actively working in the children's best interests. Playing with Lauren's children while they are in her home would be an act of kindness, but engaging in play therapy, outside of a defined clinical 'contract' and with no certainty as to where the girls could turn with issues that come up for them after the single session ends, would be highly unethical and could be very harmful. My concern in that situation is that sometimes you get people who find great personal satisfaction in doling out a little counselling 'help' here and there, and the reason they work as itinerant counsellors is often because they don't meet the requirements to hold down a professional job.

My worry is that Lauren could easily be befriended by anyone, for any reason, and all they would have to do is say the right things for an hour or so until she would trust them enough to leave the kiddies alone with them. It is horrifying to think of the dangers they have already been placed in over the last two years, and sickening to think that she is all refreshed by her retreat and ready to trot off for another year of the same.

[celestial]

Ooh, ooh, another synesthete (not sure if that's the correct term)! I have a form where I see all letters, numbers and words in colour. Each letter of the alphabet and each number has its own colour and they never vary. How does yours work?

Tangent: I'm sooo fascinated by synesthesia, and I would love both of you forever and make you a thousand sparkly cakes if you did an Ask Me Anything about it. (If you want to.)

[happy atheist]

For our Aussie FJers, I noticed that Lauren has referred several times to "capsicums." I looked it up, and here in the states we call them bell peppers. Do you all call them capsicums, or is this more Lauren weirdness?

[Guest Anonymous]

For our Aussie FJers, I noticed that Lauren has referred several times to "capsicums." I looked it up, and here in the states we call them bell peppers. Do you all call them capsicums, or is this more Lauren weirdness?

I have seen capsicum on Aussie food sites. In the UK we just call them red, green, or yellow peppers.

[happy atheist]

I have seen capsicum on Aussie food sites. In the UK we just call them red, green, or yellow peppers.

That's pretty much how we do it here. Some people will say "bell pepper" to distinguish them from hot peppers. I had never heard the word capsicum before. I guess it's like eggplant vs aubergine or raisin vs sultana.

I feel successfully unschooled. Thanks Lauren!

[Patsy]

Always said capsicum, never heard anyone say "bell pepper" (so it took me a while to realise they're the same thing when I read mention of them).

[Guest Anonymous]

That's pretty much how we do it here. Some people will say "bell pepper" to distinguish them from hot peppers. I had never heard the word capsicum before. I guess it's like eggplant vs aubergine or raisin vs sultana.

I feel successfully unschooled. Thanks Lauren!

A true sparkly internationally-minded unschooler would know that in the UK a "hot pepper" is a "chilli pepper". ;)

[Wolfie]

A true sparkly internationally-minded unschooler would know that in the UK a "hot pepper" is a "chilli pepper". ;)

It can be either in the US. Well Chili, with one L here, or chile.

[lilith]

I have seen capsicum on Aussie food sites. In the UK we just call them red, green, or yellow peppers.

Yeah, we call them capsicums. It actually kind of surprises me that Lauren does, given that she spent most of her childhood in an American run boarding school.

[shedemei]

Capsicum us the standard Australian term. I've had this conversation with Australians who thought calling them peppers was weird.

[Funky Chicken]

Quite right. I am disgusted, but sad for you, that you think I would ever sully my preggy vaginal aura with an actual pregnancy test. It's made of plastic, for goodness sake!

The moon fairies visited me one night and told me that I was pregnant. Of course, I already knew, because I am so in tune with my uterus that we have a weekly coffee date

(dandelion coffee OFC)

But OF COURSE I meant, a special sacred "moon stick", that you wee on and then the moon faeries appear in the evaporating miasma and commune with you and your uterus. It would be sacrilege for you to throw such a stick away - YOU MUST celebrate your pregnant miasma, and propitiate/titillate the leech-gods with the drummaginings of your wee stick!

[Artemis]

But OF COURSE I meant, a special sacred "moon stick", that you wee on and then the moon faeries appear in the evaporating miasma and commune with you and your uterus. It would be sacrilege for you to throw such a stick away - YOU MUST celebrate your pregnant miasma, and propitiate/titillate the leech-gods with the drummaginings of your wee stick!

'Scuse me while I throw up.

It was the evaporating miasma that did it. :D

[Wolfie]

Yeah, we call them capsicums. It actually kind of surprises me that Lauren does, given that she spent most of her childhood in an American run boarding school.

I'm not too surprised, I grew up in California, but lived in the midwest for 5 years. If I spend any amount of time in the midwest, I fall into midwestern dialect easily. It's pretty easy to just start using the words that people around you use.

[Dysfundamental]

But OF COURSE I meant, a special sacred "moon stick", that you wee on

:cough: Shower with the healing torrents of your magickal lady-waters :cough:

and then the moon faeries appear in the evaporating miasma and commune with you and your uterus. It would be sacrilege for you to throw such a stick away - YOU MUST celebrate your pregnant miasma, and propitiate/titillate the leech-gods with the drummaginings of your wee stick!

[August]

I grew up in Australia's alternative community, and I can assure you that Lauren and her crew would raise eyebrows among the first wave hippies.

I very much doubt the attendants at her free birth were all happy and willing. In fact, I would bet that most of them were terrified and wishing there was competent medical help available, but doing the best they could under the circumstances to help.

Also, someone called DOCS when Aisha was lost in the bush overnight. The only people there were fellow Rainbow Family members, so one of them must have called.

I suspect Lauren is quickly burning bridges within the alternative community as she becomes aware that it does have standards (that can at times be surprisingly middle class), especially when it comes to the welfare of children.

She knows Hells and Magpie. Perfect character references!

I was really really surprised to see that that was her first rainbow gathering, and her first drug-free birth. And cut off from civilisation, too! I wonder, though, if she thought the midwife friend from the unschooling seminar would be there?

I agree with Lilith - she's one of those (warning- about to work my way through her life and probably rehash every point that's been rehashed a hundred times over 80+ pages) really extreme people. I nearly fell off my chair when I read this bit, a couple of weeks before her eldest's second birthday.

I’ve put together a very loose curriculum from a number of online sources, and today was the first day of dedicated school-work for Aïcha.

With a bit of exhortation from a friend, I am putting the Bible time first. We read a bit from a really friendly kids’ Bible, then we pray and sing a memory verse. Of course, Aïcha doesn’t sing yet, but one day she will!

In our lessons this week, we are concentrating on learning the colour red, circles, the letter A and the number 1. We’re also talking and reading books about the beach, and I hope to be able to take Aïcha to the beach this week.

We both wore red shirts and AJ ate off a red plate. She pasted big and little As onto a piece of paper. When Aïcha looked at a page in the old magazine with me, she would scan it and then seriously say, ‘No, no As’, so we would turn to the next page to look for them. She can identify the big and little A in her name, thanks to a lovely wooden puzzle given to us which is cut out in the letters of her name.

Tomorrow we’ll go through the magazine and look for number 1s. Maybe I’ll cook red food for dinner too. Or jelly. What a good back-up — jelly comes in all colours, doesn’t it? (Perhaps I’ll save it for the purple week.)

I'm not surprised she decided it was a bad idea! It seems a lot of the hopeless unschoolers are like this. They see no middle ground between worksheets all day or unlimited screen time. But she's the same with the bedtimes, she was one of those awful baby schedulers, she blackmailed her poor Dad into coming back to Australia when he needed money because she thought he was an abomination (he's gay), then she went about her hippy, world loving transformation for a very very long time before she reconciled with him (Nov 2011). I mean, her kids hadn't had a bedtime for SIX MONTHS before she decided maybe her Dad wasn't a tool of the devil. Although, maybe she made overtures and her poor Dad rebuffed her after years of bitchiness from her. But next she'll probably decide to take up lesbianism for a while.

So, anyway, wrt to my schooling, I have a couple of months of the blog to go yet. I hate her, I hate how she's gone from holier than thou doomsday prepper fundy to holier than thou hippy with no pause in between. I think her poor kids will be lucky if their teeth survive their childhoods. I think she's being educationally neglectful, I think she tried to kill Elijah (like poor Roisin) during birth to suit her own image of being a hippy, and I think she is doing serious long term damage to Brioni's brain and body by not feeding her properly. And it drives me crazy that they're raw vegan with a side of fries. Beans, woman! Beans and tofu and kale! And steak and cheese and eggs! The good part of vegan is not the fruit, the good part of mainstream is not the chips! So why the fuck are you feeding your kids the worst of both worlds? It's like me making those (raw vegan) nut/date/cocoa bars and saying we had a healthy week. And I despise having her kids in car seats with the straps down around their waists (in one pic the child is asleep, making unlikely she pulled them down afterthe car stopped).

But.

Assuming they wash faces and hands, wet wipe bottoms, I don't think washing less often is the end of the world (although the thought makes me itch). I think my kids have been doing entirely too much grazing and subsisting on snack trays of apples, bananas, ham, crackers and cheese then dining on pasta with jarred sauce while I've been depressed and napping the last few months, and I didn't lose child and husband, so I can't point any fingers there. I think that picking on the kids' clothes and hair is unnecessary - they're camping. And I don't find her comparison of a psychotic break or whatever happened with David too crazy. Did you see his youtube channel? (saviouroftheworld - megalomaniacal much?) If he's in a psychiatric facility until trial (March 3), then the cops must agree to at least some extent. I'll reserve judgement until then. Because really, here's so much about her to dislike and be concerned about, I'm not going to borrow stuff.

OK, off to read the rest while you flame me, and then I've got 80 pages on here to read. Busy, busy!

[lilith]

I highly doubt anyone's going to flame you for that.