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.

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…

UK examination board Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) has issued new copies of its school poetry anthology (used by teachers and students to prepare for GCSE English exams) after it removed a poem called Education for Leisure by current Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The poem is simple and provocative and because a handful of people complained about its implied references to knife crime, has been removed from the AQA syllabus:

(I get our bread-knife and go out. / The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.)

The actual decision was made last year amid the spate of knife-related murders in the UK, where statistics gathered by the Conservatives reported that 227 stabbing deaths occurred between April 2007 and April 2008.

I must admit, I haven’t been keeping up as closely with UK news since I moved from there back to Australia in late 2006 so I have only just become aware of the removal of Duffy’s poem.

I taught this poem to my GSCE students in London in 2004 and 2005 and it was one of the most successful poems in generating discussion and engaging their interest. Isn’t that the whole point of poetry? It was especially popular with boys and considering many of them would moan every class, “why do we have to learn poetry, miss? What good is it going to do us?” that is quite an achievement.

Personally, the poem was one of my favourites and we had great classroom discussion on anti-social behaviour and what makes people want to hurt others. (“Today I am going to kill something. Anything./I have had enough of being ignored and today/I am going to play God.”)

In an article on the brilliant Sp!ked, writer Michele Ledda, who started a petition against AQA’s decision called Hands off Poetry! said “…if we accept this unprecedented, absurd decision, we agree that the curriculum should be devised and managed according to health and safety rather than educational principles…”.

What’s next? Romeo and Juliet because it may glamourise suicide?

I caught a look at the updated doll of my childhood in the shop the other day and she looks, well, too grown up. Too sassy. Too knowing.

My husband (who, if allowed, would have our daughters sent to a nunnery in rural France as soon as they hit their teens) said, “Strawberry is looking too much like a Bratz for my liking”.

This is what Strawberry Shortcake should look like (pictured is my vintage 1981 doll and puzzle) – cute, innocent and child-like.

My Strawberry Shortcake "blow kisses" doll and puzzle from 1981.

This is the 2009 update of Strawberry:

New look Strawberry Shortcake 2009

Just look at the subtle reincarnations over the past decade. She has become a little bit older looking with each revamp.

The "Noughties" reincarnations of Strawberry Shortcake. A little bit older-looking each makeover!

There was even this 2006 look where Strawberry’s jaw could rival Rumer Willis’s (daughter of Bruce and Demi) and she has a strawberry tattoo on her back (wildly inappropriate I think! Maybe the Peculiar Purple Pieman branded her?).

This 2006 look didn't work.

Strawberry Shortcake's Tattoo. Who gave adult consent to get this? The Peculiar Purple Pieman?

Why do companies have to mess with the toys that we loved as kids? They seem to be too “s-xed up” under the guise of being concerned with being more contemporary or health-focused. According to an article in the New York Times (June 11, 2008) “Beloved Characters as Reimagined for 21^st Century”:

“…American Greetings worked for a year on what it calls a “fruit-forward” makeover. Strawberry Shortcake, part of a line of scented dolls, now prefers fresh fruit to gumdrops…and spends her time chatting on a cellphone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard…”

So, she’s no longer the chubby little cutie we 1980s kids grew up to love. Strawberry Shortcake is now thinner and hipper thanks to her ditching the cakes and desserts and eating more fruit. (Word is she’s dumped her friends who aren’t associated with fruit. Bye, bye Angel Cake, Ginger Snap, Peppermint Fizz and Coco Calypso!)

Where’s the fun and innocence in that?

This Tupperware jug ( the pic is not great…sorry) is probably one of the most lasting things I have in my life. Longer than any romantic relationship or gym membership or club I have belonged to.

It is about 25 years old, (so my mum thinks) and it was our cordial jug. The vessel from which we gained great relief for thirst. Every time I opened the fridge at home it was there.

Now it is mine.

I went to a Tupperware party today (and most enjoyable it was) and I have purchased a few things that I think will revolutionise my kitchen habits. Basically, I am a sucker for anything that is a nice colour and has dinky little compartments.

I went a little overboard and spent about $200 (some of these are presents for Christmas, I justified to my hubby!) in my excitement over containers and drink bottles and things that chop onions.

I have recently reconnected with some girls, E and A from school (after 15 years) and the party was at the home of one.

I made mention to A (who was always very cool and slightly rebellious) that if was so funny that we were so intently studying the Tupperware catalogue and discussing the merits of the items.

Me: “Would you have believed 15 years ago that we would be at a Tupperware party doing this?”.

A: “No way”.

And E, who hosted the party ( another cool and gutsy gal from our Catholic girls’ school) turned out to be somewhat of a Tupperware afficionado.

When I was asking questions about one particular item E said: “I’ve got them if you want to have a look”.

Overwhelmed by this Tupperware love-fest I said to E: “It is so great that we have reconnected after all these years”.

“It is,” she replied.

And there was another little moment for me in how fantastic friendship is.