General Chat

I've PMd Julie Ann if she's still around.

oh god just noticed cant keep up yer
i just going to ave look helen sorry
will be back

Ok I will leave it..Im off to bed, not feeling 100%

nite all x

hope your better tomorrow, mildred
take it easy, have warm drink,

been lot of people feeling under weather lately round here

im going now too, just membered gota do dishes before i go up for bath,
oh no i avent ironed me uniform either,
take care guys
xx
will add a thread now

Night Elaine...............hope you feel better tomorrow.

xx

Kathryn.....My children have gone through nursey , primary and senior schools with mostly the same set of friends and my sons who are the oldest are still in contact with the same freinds...

Of course they handed out their party invites ast school...they waited all year to d so...

Going back to the not inviting all children.
My daughter was having a party at McDonalds for her 8th birthday , they did set groups I think it was either 10 12 20 something like that. Any way they they provided the invites for the amount the party was booked for.
My daughter wrote out her invites and too took them to school, the following afternoon one of the mothers stopped me in the playground and say Mrs X was very upset as her daughter hadn't been invited, I was shocked and said it was my daughters party and she choose who she wanted to inivte not me. Thinking I was being polite and I went and told Mrs X this, She repiled in a very snotty fashion that her Poppet was left out the year before as well. Not quiet beleiving what I was hearing, Again I said " that it was my daughters party not mine and the guest list was her choice.
Now my daughters birthday is the 23rd Dec and money was always tight but feeling upset about this I went and paid for another guest at the party unable to do this I had pay for another 5 .

The party was in our town but a bus ride away. Sure enough Mrs X daughters didnt turn up, angry about the trouble and extra expenise I had gone after the xmas I made a point of asking Mrs X why she never brought her daughter, she said " No one offered to take her and I don't drive. Enough was enough and I never repiled.
The year after and always I always said to my daughter are you inviting Poppet, her reply was no she isnt one of friends.

I have landed on Mars ...

"The school, in Lund, southern Sweden, argues that if invitations are handed out on school premises then it must ensure there is no discrimination."

Well, yes indeed, we can all say that no rule was broken. Or we can acknowledge that any opinion we might have about this event -- in a country where we have never been, involving people we know nothing about -- is based on a news report that hardly provides us with a complete picture of anything.

Or we can go on an internet board and shrill and keen and yelp and whine about the world gone crazy, and how PC is spoiling everything, and a little bullying never done us no harm. And join the legion of right-wing cretins doing the same thing all over the internet. (Got google, anybody?) Not company I choose to keep.

To several people: have you not figured out by now -- despite the myriad times I have tried to explain it to you, and said it quite clearly -- that I simply do not give a flying fig who agrees with me, or what they or anyone else thinks about me?

I have responded to posts in this thread that made FALSE STATEMENTS, and that flung INSULTING COMMENTS at people that the people flinging them KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.

I'll say it again -- if anyone here called one of YOUR children "brats" because s/he had not bothered even to read the tiny bit of information available about a situation, you would all be pitching fits up and down the boards.

I DO NOT enter discussion threads and throw insults at people here or not here.

I respond to what people SAY.

IF PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE READING RESPONSES TO WHAT THEY SAY IN PUBLIC ON THE INTERNET ... you know what comes next.

No, Ann in Glos, you were not right. How's that for an opinion?

This has nothing to do with having "a lawyer's brain".

It has to do with having basic morals. Basic morality means that if you (this being the big all-inclusive you) are going to say something in public, you make sure that you are not saying something false, you do not badmouth strangers or anyone without proof of what you're saying, and you do not react to responses to what you said by saying false things about the person who said them.

Julie comes into this thread and calls a bunch of kids she does not know "brats", based on some completley false set of facts, and she's a lovely lady.

I say it is unfair and unpleasant to say such false things about children, and I'm just the nastiest person in the world.

Anybody else feel like they just walked through the looking glass? I do most days around here ...


By the way, the complaint has been filed with THE PARLIAMENTARY OMBUDSMAN.

If anybody wants to continue whining about how this shouldn't have gone to "Parliament", s/he might want to get those facts straight, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_Ombudsman

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Sweden has had an Ombudsman Institution since 1809. At that time Sweden was ruled by the King and therefore the Riksdag, which then represented the Four Estates, considered that some institution that was independent of the King was needed in order to ensure that laws and statutes were observed. For this reason it appointed a Parliamentary Ombudsman and still continues to do so. The first Ombudsman was appointed in 1810, and the Parliamentary Ombudsmen still follow the basic principles that have applied since then.

[edit] Jurisdiction

A complaint to the JO (Justitieombudsmannen) - or to the Parliamentary Ombudsmen (Riksdagens ombudsmän) which is the official name of the Institution - can be made by anybody who feels that he or she or someone else has been treated wrongly or unjustly by a public authority or an official employed by the civil service or local government. (In other words a person need not be a Swedish citizen or have reached a certain age to be able to lodge a complaint.)

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Lather, rinse, repeat ...

Hayley ... can you really not see the difference between that situation and a child inviting EVERY OTHER CHILD in his class except two:

- one because he was allegedly a bully (a pretty good reason)
- the other because he had not invited the child to his own birthday party (I ask again: did every other child invite that child to his/her birthday party? or is this pure nasty vindictiveness, or maybe a pretext?)

For a child to invite EVERY child in his class to an event EXCEPT TWO -- and I don't think I'm the one in need of new glasses here -- the child has to be pretty bent on putting someone's nose out of joint, I'd say.

And that is NOT what schools are for.

The child can carry on his vindictive games at his own leisure, on his own time, on premises of his choosing -- but NOT in class time, and NOT on school premises.

School authorities just really do not need to be getting stuck in the middle of schoolyard games like these.

Being as they are children Kathryn and he gets the choice quiet frankly he didnt want them there so why should he invite them, school is the social net work for all children. so thats where hs friends are more likely to be, Just having to invite them is worse than their mothers being best friends and the kids cant stand the sight of each other..

Do pardon me, SueM. Some people like their posts addressed directly, some don't, I just get so confused ...

------------------------------

"THE TEACHER observed that the child had broken the rule by handing out invitations to some students and not others."

Does that mean that if the child had given invitations to ALL the children the teacher would have turned a 'blind eye' to the misdemeanor of handing out invites during school time?

------------------------------

I guess I look like a psychic. For entertainment only, of course.

Who said that handing out invitations during school time was a misdemeanour?

How can I answer a question that contains a false premise?

Handing out invitations during school time has never been said to be a misdemeanour. So why would a teacher "turn a blind eye" to it, or not, and why would you ask me this?

The rule prohibits discrimination, apparently. Obviously the underlying purpose of the rule is to ensure that children are not made to feel EXCLUDED, whether because of race, religion, disability or whatever.

The child in this case so plainly used this whole invitation process as a weapon in a schoolyard exclusion game -- you didn't invite me to your party, I'm not inviting you to mine, nyah nyah -- that I don't see how the school could have treated it otherwise.

And I'll just spend the rest of the night scratching my head at how so many people are so eager to think evil thoughts about children, and wish unpleasant experiences on children, that they get this worked up about something that they know nothing about and that has no affect on their lives.

Kathryn

You state:

"Well, yes indeed, we can all say that no rule was broken. Or we can acknowledge that any opinion we might have about this event -- in a country where we have never been, involving people we know nothing about -- is based on a news report that hardly provides us with a complete picture of anything."

Actually some of us are quite well travelled and have actually lived in other countries for varying lengths of time. To make a sweeping statement like that is not only unfair but false.

I would also like to add that you use your command of the English language to belittle GR members who explain themselves very well but not perhaps in the way you approve of.

By the way, you start your sentences with a conjunction *tut*.

Sue

Really, SueM?

Lived in Sweden, have you? Know the school intimately? Had dinner with the family in question?

Have a point?

Didn't think so.

"I would also like to add that you use your command of the English language to belittle GR members who explain themselves very well but not perhaps in the way you approve of."

And I'll just add that you're lying. 'K?

Kathryn, Nobody is denying you the right to your own point of view and to state it. Would it be possible to state it in a way which doesn't denigrate someone elses point of view? This was meant to be a discussion of views not a forum to attack others. Please try to treat people the way you would like to be treated. A bit of care and compassion goes a long way. Thanks

Well said Helen.

Too many have left this thread because of the responses they have received. That is a shame as everyone's opinion should be heard without being criticised. Errors in interpretation can of course be pointed out, politely, sadly that does not happen.

Sue x

ooooh Kathryn accused me of lying :-(((((

Please form a queue to have me hung, drawn and quartered!

You been fibbing Sue? You naughty thing? lol

Helen, maybe you can provide me with a model.

Someone says

"why did the kids complain if theyd fallen out,
sounds like a load of brats to me"

You know that the kids did not complain.

You see someone saying, falsely, that the kids complained -- and calling them "a load of brats" because they complained, which they didn't do.

Pretend they're your kids.

What's your response?

And pretend to be completely honest, if you would.


"Nobody is denying you the right to your own point of view and to state it. Would it be possible to state it in a way which doesn't denigrate someone elses point of view?"

Helen, I am not denying anyone his/her right to his/her own point of view, and to state it.

No one -- no one -- has a right to state a point of view and not be called on it.

And when the point of view is vicious, as many of the points of view stated in this place are, I'll call 'em on it.

That's my point of view, and it's my right to state it.

What would you do without me?

Gosh, you might have to discuss ideas and facts and opinions ... instead of discussing me.

Nobody would of course. Blatting out an opinion isn't "discussing". It's just blatting out an opinion. Like a bunch of bleating yanks on the Jerry Springer show, flinging around their opinions about things and people they know nothing about. Blah blah blah blah -- well that's my opinion and I'm entitled to it!!!!

Well big whoopedy whoop. It's your opinion, you're welcome to it, and if I think it's nasty and stupid, that's my opinion and I'm entitled to it. And to say it.

Countries I have visited and some I have lived in:

Australia
Singapore
France
Germany
Spain
Portugal
Austria
Luxemburg
Netherlands
Italy
Malta
Belgium etc etc

and

in case I forget


SWEDEN

edited to add don't bother to reply Kathryn because I'm sure you will accuse me of lying....*yawn*

Well in a nut shell I couldnt give a toss if people like my oipnion or not its mine and thats it, Kathryn sorry if my lack of grammar has offended but thats me..


Sorry Elaine x