A big week for Australia, for women

It has been a monumental week in Australian politics and history.

We now have our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. The circumstances of her ascent to the top job were tumultuous -  Labor party MPs made the decision to oust Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and backed Gillard as his successor. Rudd stepped down when it became clear that Gillard had the numbers to win a caucus vote.

Political manoueverings aside, I feel buoyed by the week’s events – as a woman, a mother and an Australian.

With hard work, intelligence  and no family or money connections, Julia Gillard has worked her way up and taken the most powerful job in Australia and that fact makes me so happy for my daughters that really and truly, they can do anything they want. It doesn’t matter that we won’t be sending them to one of the more prestigious Melbourne private schools. Of course, with privilege comes great opportunities but that is no guarantee to success and happiness. (How many privileged offspring have failed to thrive and gone off the rails?)

On a more personal note, the fact that Julia Gillard is Welsh (she migrated to Australia at age 3) is an added pleasure. My husband is Welsh and it is a country I adore. I am looking forward to taking my girls there at some stage to see where their dad and grandparents are from. (My mother-in-law lives in a west Wales village and it feels like my second home.)

June 25, 2010   Posted in: Society  2 Comments

Katharine Hepburn biography

I have just today finished Kate: The Woman who was Katharine Hepburn by William J. Mann. It is book nine in my 2010 100 + Reading Challenge (I know, I am way behind!) A Very revealing biography of a Hollywood actress I have long admired, ever since I saw her in Little Women as Jo March.

The book is definitive. It also blows the lid somewhat off the legend that is the relationship between Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. There definitely was a deep connection between the two and they had on screen charisma but like all good legends there is much embellishment. I am always somewhat disappointed to read that star,s are at their core, are attention seekers and this book points to the deep need that Hepburn had for adoration. The author William J Mann also reveals that Spencer Tracy grappled with homosexuality, which could have explained his alcoholism. I had never heard that before.

It’s a long read at 532 pages but a very comprehensive look at Hepburn’s life, especially her early years.

I have borrowed The African Queen and On Golden Pond from my grandfather to watch. I have never seen these films.

June 12, 2010   Posted in: 100+ reading challenge 2010, celebrity  One Comment

Failure to take responsibility

 

I’ve just finished watching a story segment on Australian current affairs program 60 Minutes. It was about a 15-year-old NSW girl Tegan Lloyd who lost her legs and will spend her life in a wheelchair after a horrific crash that also left the 17-year-old, alcohol-affected female driver dead. There were also two other passengers – boys – who escaped with minor injuries. They were 13 and 14.

The accident happened at 3.30am.

It was quite sad to see Tegan struggling with rehab and trying to put her thoughts together about what happened. The car wreck was horrific and it is incredible that no one else was killed.

The question that immediately came to my mind was “what were these kids doing out at that time?”. Then the reporter Tara Brown asked Tegan’s mother if the passengers, including her daughter needed to take some responsibility for being in the car. “No” was her emphatic reply. This was after she admitted that she thought the driver who paralysed her daughter deserved her fate, which was to die.

What responsibility does this mother take for allowing her daughter to be in a position to be in a car at 3.30am?  A 15-year-old should be in bed – whether it is their own or at a friend’s house (and I don’t mean a boyfriend or girlfriend!).

Maybe I am being harsh? I don’t think I am because until parents take more responsibility for teaching their kids to make safe choices, then there will be no hope for some kids who become victims of slack parenting.

I wish Tegan Lloyd all the best. Her situation is beyond comprehension for a 15-year-old to face. She was articulate and honest.

I may come to eat my words when my kids are teens but I am going to do my best to teach them about consequences of actions – good and bad.

I report for a newspaper in an area that last year had one of the highest road fatality rates in Victoria, Australia. It is sickening to cover a fatality and its aftermath. The devastation of the families and friends. The horror for emergency service workers. The media outcry when a carload of young people die and are permanently injured.

Then it fades until the next time. And the next time.

May 30, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Party Season

We just had a party for our 4-year-old. Oh, the pressure of putting on an entertainment-fest for a bunch of cute little kids. I was actually very restless the night before and was anxioulsy awaiting RSVPs so that I knew how many party bags to put together.

Is it just me or do other parents find the task of putting on a kids’ party to be ultra-stressful? Give me work deadlines any day.

We had a party at a local gymnastics club because our daughter is really into doing tumbles and jumps and stretches and we thought it would be something active and different (and we didn’t have to clean up afterwards!).

It went well, although I ended up spending a lot more on the party than I should have.

Next year, we’ll just do something quiet…

May 22, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

100+ Reading Challenge Update

I am way behind with my goal of reading 100+ books this year.

I have been reading but slower than I’d like and I haven’t updated here for a while. So…here’s what I have been reading.

Worst of Days by Karen Kissane – This is a fact-driven and includes harrowing accounts of the devastating Victorian Bushfires on February 7 last year known as Black Saturday. Kissane is a journalist I very much admire who is a senior writer for The Ageand this book comes from Kissane’s reporting of the Bushfires Royal Commission for that newspaper. 

After Etan by Lisa Cohen – This book is the definitive account of the case of Etan Patz, a six-year-old New York boy who went missing in 1979 and was never found, though authorities have a prime suspect for his disappearance and presumed murder.

What’s Happening to Our Girls by Maggie Hamilton – as the mum of two girls I am already worrying about the challenges they will face as they grow up (probably the same as I did and my mother too but we didn’t have mobile phones, Facebook and Pussycat Dolls to interfere with our development!). This book details the concerns of parents, teachers, psychologists in what they see as the increased vulnerability and oversexualisation of our girls.

April 23, 2010   Posted in: 100+ reading challenge 2010  2 Comments

K-Rudd local love

 

The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd was on my home patch today.

He rocked up to a popular shopping precinct and was greeted by a throng of media (I was one of them) and locals (I was also one of them) who were snapping away with their mobile phones and thrusting their kids forward for the PM to meet.

It’s not every day you get to see your leader up close and personal.

 

March 30, 2010   Posted in: Lifestyle, Society  No Comments

Why I feel sorry for young people: part 1

I was watching a music channel countdown of the top 20 hits of the 80s the other night. “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles came on and it reminded me of the times I would get up early to tape music off the radio.

I can clearly remember one morning desperately waiting to tape “Walk Like an Egyptian” (it was number one on the charts at the time) and making sure I paused when the ads came on so that I could ensure a seamless (well, as seamless as recording on a tape deck could be) listening experience on my pink ghetto blaster.

The point is this took commitment and planning. There was work involved in the creation of a mix-tape. (It was 1986 and I was 10 so I had limited funds to get cassette singles.)

These days, you simply have to load stuff on iTunes or click a few buttons to buy stuff online and voila! You have an instant mix-tape. (Well, mixed MP3.) I’m not bemoaning the technology. I access it and love it too but I can remember the days before technology made things so…easy, I guess.

Having two kids of my own now I am quite worried about how technology will be integrated into their lives. I didn’t used a computer until I was 14 (remember the black and green screens?) and didn’t own a mobile phone until I was 19. I really feel like my generation are the luckiest because we grew up free of distractions like Facebook, MSN Messenger, mobile phones and iPods. (I use all of these things and think they are great but in small doses.)

All I can think is thank God there were no mobile phone with cameras to capture mistakes I made, or YouTube to upload my youthful indescretions. I am so relieved I could make my mistakes and learn from them without the constant reminder of a photo snapped on a phone. We had a refuge from troubles at school and that was at home without Facebook, MSN or MySpace as another vehicle for people to harass you.

I have no idea what it will be like when my preschoolers hit their “tweens” or “twihards” or whatever that age is called these days…I still like the term kids!

 (At the moment I am adament they won’t get a phone until high school. Or go out with boys until they are 18. Hell, we just want to keep them indoors until they are at least 21! )

March 23, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Parenting, Society  No Comments

It’s a possessive apostrophe

I noticed this classic grammar clanger on a promo for ER on television the other week:

I can remember my first weekly grammar test for my journalism course at university. I made this mistake too and my lecturer Sally White,  wrote “Sally sitting down because Sally feels ill” and she drew a little picture of her sitting in a chair with head stooped.

I have never forgotten the proper use of its and it’s again.

An easy way I would tell the kids I taught was to think whether they would say, “the dog wags it is (it’s) tail” or “the dog wags its tail”.

March 6, 2010   Posted in: spelling and grammar  4 Comments

Disney Princess Complex

My daughter is heavily into the Disney Princesses at the moment. Ariel and Snow White are her favourites and she loves to dress up as a princess.

I flip between worry that this interest is going to give her unrealistic expectations about what it means to be a girl and her role in the world, and then enjoyment in watching the dvds (Little Mermaid, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty mostly) and playing with the dolls. We role play the stories (she is the wicked stepmother and I play Cinderella) and when I ask her what she wants to be when she is older the reply is “a mermaid and marry Prince Eric”. (My friend said it’s good she wants to be a mermaid because they can’t have s-x!)

Lately she has been very choosy about what she wears and if there is an item I put on her that she doesn’t like there will be tears, tantrums and screams of “I don’t look pretty in that”. This attitude worries me. The general advice from friends and the staff at her childcare is that it is a phase.  I am not a “girly-girl” or someone who is very fashionable or cares that much what I wear so I am  finding it challenging having a child who changes her clothes five times a day and only wants to wear dresses (I rarely wear dresses and when I do she says “mum, you look pretty. I want to look just like you.” That melts my heart and then I realise I should relish the moment because she ain’t going to be saying that in 10 years!)

I have written previously about not worrying about gender-specific toys and I think there is a mini-hysteria from parents who want to be seen to be hip and cool and edgy by eschewing the kinds of toys that we played happily with as kids (dolls, My Little Pony, Barbie, Fisher Price).

What I do like about the Disney Princesses is that there is a sweetness and innocence to them but also gutsiness. Ariel is inquisitive and adventurous, Snow White is kind and Pocahontas has dreams and drive (I realise Disney has taken some liberties with the hitorical accuracy of the story though.) Bratz on the other hand… they are never setting their platform-wedged feet in our house!

February 24, 2010   Posted in: Parenting, Relationships, Society  No Comments

Successful marriage secrets

Part of my job as a local newspaper reporter  is to do stories on significant wedding anniversaries - mostly 50th and 60th, even 70th ones.

One of my regular questions to these devoted couples is “what are your secrets to a successful marriage?”.

I am always waiting with my breath held for a nugget of advice that is so amazing that it will change my life but to be honest, the replies from these couples are simple (they admit as much that there is no complicated formula) and ones that many of us have heard before. Here are some examples:

1. Don’t let the sun go down on an argument.

2. Love each other.

3. Be kind to each other.

Seems so simple but I have failed on all three counts (and endless other marriage-enriching strategies) at times. I have been married eight years in October this year and I think that is a really long time! It has flown by as well, which is as startling as the fact I have sustained a relationship for this long! (My one other significant and  long-ish relationship was ballsed up by me being incredibly selfish, impulsive and confused in the way that defines some people’s early twenties.)

I have gone to bed completely enraged with my husband and have woken up with sleep not quietening the rage. I have been very unkind to him and have definitely had times where love has definitely had nothing to do with the relationship.

That’s normal, or so I have been told.

But on this Valentine’s Day we have our two daughters as a reminder that we are very blessed. I also have a partner who is on the same page as  me on things like movie tastes (He thought Mission: Impossible II was crap. Ditto Love, Actually…apart from the bit when Emma Thompson’s character receives the Joni Mitchell CD and plays ‘Both Sides Now’) and reads and watches as much news as I do.  (We were watching BBC World News the other night with a cup of tea… not sexy or exciting but perfectly enjoyable!) We have a similar sense of humour too. Some of this seems so superficial as I write but I find it comforting to be on a similar wavelength.

Post-It note: Kindness. Love. Sort out arguments promptly.

February 14, 2010   Posted in: Lifestyle, Relationships, Society  4 Comments




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