World Of Tourism

Ask any parent and they'll tell you the same thing, it's worth it. The dark moments of sleepless nights, financial insecurities and the not so serious but still extremely annoying sticky chocolate stains are overshadowed by laughs that originate from the stomach, the word DADA being screamed as they launch themselves into their blow up pool and the ecstatic look on their faces as you open a much anticipated chocolate, which of course brings you back to the not so serious but still extremely annoying sticky chocolate stains. It's a cycle.

The amusing thing is that as parents we love to be the experts, but the truth is that we are constantly learning and adapting. As much as we are the teachers of life, we could learn a thing or two from them. A prime example is time. While rushing one morning to prepare myself as well as my one year old for school, I fumbled over bags as I filled them with the necessities, tripped over a Barney Teddy Bear, ran to stop her from emptying the cat's food bowl and just managed to get us both outside and looking semi decent. My main objective was to get us to the car and get us moving as quickly as possible but as we walked she stopped to look at a flower. By this stage my patience levels had dwindled and as I was about to shout "Come on, let's go" I stopped to see her smelling a daisy with an incomplete toothy grin. It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase stop and smell the roses. We took a full five minutes to enjoy the flower vibe and my day was better for it.

We also learn the importance of just being silly. Ive lost count on how many times an adult has walked past me as I am pulling a funny face or making a funny sound. I've even been caught doing the chicken dance and I've never laughed as hard as that day. It's about entertainment for them and the more you make yourself look like a dork the better and the funnier.

When you are in a relationship with a loving partner learning the ways of parenting together, it makes it even more unique and special. As the two of you leopard crawl out of your child's room together after spending the last half an hour trying to get them to sleep, you'll laugh, in fact, you'll snigger silently as you try and get to the couch. An unspoken rivalry will form when your child says their first word, one person praying for DADA and the other for MAMA. And when it happens and if the moment favors you, you'll find yourself screaming, "Yes!!! HAHA!! I'm the favorite!" and doing a glorious victory dance, while looking like a complete fool.

As hard as it can be, raising a child has so many joys that will put millions of smiles on your face as time goes by. Someone asked me "Can you imagine your life without her?" and my answer was an unequivocal "Absolutely not!".

A small classroom filled with teddy bears, names tags and poorly drawn pictures of sunshines and rainbows sits in a small, unassuming house on a quiet street. The sounds of children laughing and playfully sorting out there things on the racks and in the cupboards echo into the parking area, they are gleefully preparing themselves for another day that promises nothing but fun and happiness.

I sit in my car and stare into the rearview mirror, into the face of a blonde haired, blue eyed little angel that stares at the house in intense curiousity with a hint of fear. She shuffles in her seat uncomfortably and in words only I, as her mother, can understand, she utters her confusion while pointing one tiny white finger. It's the first day of preschool. A nervous day for any young mother and I am no exception. My first instinct is to high tail it out of there, find a beach and eat ice creams all day with the small person in my life, knowing whole heartedly that nothing can happen when I am around and find a great source of comfort in that. But this idea is a selfish one, a mother's way of shielding her child from the reality of the world and we all know how well that works out.

So fighting back my gut instinct I carefully remove her from the car and find myself clinging to her a little too tightly. She gives me an incomplete toothy grin and I can't help but smile back. As we step inside, the smell of baby lotion and fresh linen hits me and it has a suprisingly calm effect on me. My daughters eyes dart from one corner of the room to the other, she leans a little closer into me and eyeballs the teacher, who is talking in a high pitched voice. The sight of the ball pool excites my little one and she rushes over to see the sea of colours, calling me as she touches them.

After a few snaps of the cam, I start edging slowly towards the door, she instantly figures out my plan and comes running. Throwing her lily white arms around me, sghe starts with the quivering lip. The teacher sternly informs me that she will be "just fine" and that I should go. I know it's the right thing to do but when you're child is crying, logic seems to fade into the background. I rush to my car thinking of the tears running down her sweet cheeks and I find myself crying, ironically like a baby, in the car. As I composed myself I thought, welcome to motherhood!

Sex has always been and always will be a controversial issue. I doubt that anyone likes having the birds and bees discussion with their wide eyed and bushy tailed 10 year old. But what is becoming clear is that sex education needs to be taught and at an even younger age. As parents, we desperately want to believe that our children will remain virgins forever because I don't think we could handle the mental image of our children being sexually active. But the reality of today's situation is becoming more and more alarming.

I would rather have my daughter equipped with the knowledge about sex and all that it entails, than have her blindly walking into situations with second hand information. Knowledge is power and in this case, it's power one cannot afford to be without. STD's, AIDS/HIV, teenage pregnancies, the list of frightening problems is truly endless.

TWO leading medical societies have stressed that sex education should be taught in schools ‘from a very young age’. The Spanish Contraception Foundation (FEC) and the Spanish Contraception Society (SEC) say that children rarely receive necessary information about sexual relations at home and they are not taught enough – nor sufficiently early – in school. This means they learn about the birds and the bees via the internet, or via classmates of the same age.

Another recent survey revealed that a significant number of heterosexual adult women believed the contraceptive pill helped to prevent the transmission of HIV in addition to stopping pregnancy. This is a concept that seems to stem from the stone age and is still being believed in the 21st century, that should be enough of a wake up call.

The two associations have also reminded doubters that evidence has shown that the availability of the morning after pill over the counter does not lead to an increase in underage sex. The organizations also said they were in favor of teenagers being able to have an abortion without parental consent or knowledge. Breathe.....

They said that children should feel able to discuss sex and unwanted pregnancy with their families, but in cases where parents and children do not have a good relationship, a young girl’s lack of freedom to choose to abort without telling her mother and father could have harmful consequences all round. I tend to agree with this line of thinking. As frightening as this must seem to some parents, these are problems we cannot afford to ignore. Pretending these things don't happen is making the situation worse, let's be honest and provide these solutions so that we can safeguard our kids. It's not the ideal situation but it's the best we can do.

Ive never understood how a teacher can fall in love with a pupil, especially if that pupil is only 15 years old. The teacher in question, this time, is Helen Goddard and she was the popular music teacher that had an affair with one of her female students.

I remember my teens, it was a confusing time. What does a 15 year old girl know about love? I can guess pretty much nothing and they are saying that the young girl instigated the relationship. What the hell is that about? Dare the teacher, the supposed responsible one, to say no? She's been jailed for 15 months for her foolish behavior.

I can completely understand the fury that the parents are experiencing. Teachers are there to teach, to be the one responsible when the parents are not around and they are abusing that power. You cannot tell me that you can experience anything closely related to love with a child.

It's unacceptable, enough said.

As a parent, I know first hand how it feels to raise a child and let me tell you, it ain't easy. There are a million things constantly on your mind and the days just seem to fly by with all the things you need to do. Nappy changes, making bottles, washing, feeding, playing, trying to get them to sleep, shopping and on top of that, juggling a career. Now having said that, I still cant decide if a story I read about makes any sense and I hope you can help me out on this on.

A woman in Spain left her three year old boy in the back of their car for five hours in the sweltering heat and he died. She claims to have forgotten that he was there and thought she had dropped him off at nursery school, only to find him 5 hours later in the car outside her office. He was dead. I cannot for one second fathom the pain that this woman must feel, it's every parents worse nightmare to lose a child and to know that you are the reason your child is dead, can only be the worst thing to happen to a mother. But I struggle to understand how anyone can just "forget" their child in the back of the car?

I don't want to be harsh and say that what this woman did was intentional because I honestly believe that in the high paced world we live in today, anything really is possible, but I just can't understand how that can happen? She's been arrested for negligence but to be honest I think the guilt she will feel for the rest of her life is punishment enough, don't you?

Archaeologists have claimed that early Europeans were cannibals, with a particular taste for children. I felt my skin crawl as I typed that, I'm a firm believer in experiencing everything at least once and I can say with absolute cetainty that I take that back and no longer believe it to be true. My initial thoughts, when I read about this, were that maybe they had no other choice? food was scarce, but then I couldnt understand why they would eat children. Isn't it women and children to safety first? Clearly not. So I read a little more....

This claim comes from the discovery of bones and remains of the ancestors of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens who first settled in Europe around 800 000 years ago in the Atapuerca caves in Northern Spain. A study has revealed that human flesh was on the daily menu and children and adolescents were the unfortunate target. But this brings me back to my original question, was there a food shortage? Nope. It wasnt even ritualistic, it was just a preferred diet. Scientists believe that children and adolescents were eaten because of their place on the demographic pyramid of the group, talk about respecting your elders, respecting them enough not to eat them.

This is the first well documented case of cannibalism in the history of humanity and as fascinating as this is, I cant help but fight the urge not to bring up my lunch, which for interests sake wasn't a relative or friend of mine. There are some aspects of history I will never understand or comprehend but I'm glad that we can learn and discover these ancient ways of life, maybe it will prevent us from travelling down that dark road again. But I can't help but wonder, was it a dark road or just an accepted way of life? I'm not in any way condoning cannibalism but I look at the world we live in today and the atrocities taking place right now and I wonder if cannibalism is the worst thing our kind could have done?

A scandalous sex survey handed out to schoolchildren as young as 11 or 12 has led to regional government education authorities taking up the issue.

Kids in the fourth year of a high school in Requena (Valencia) were asked to compile a questionnaire about sexual habits for a class project.

The survey had 77 questions on it and some were of an extremely scandalous nature, for example "what nationality of men last longer in bed?" or how about "Why do women's moods change when they are on their period?" excuse me? what is this all about?

Now I am definitely not a prude in any way and I'm actually pro sex education because I think we have a serious problem with children making decisions based on ignorance. But this is just ridiculous. There are certain things that an 11 or 12 year old should not be thinking about!

What I want to know is who allowed this to happen? Surely someone in an authoritive position saw this "educational sex survey" and that person should be reprimanded. The world is a sick enough place and now children must be exposed to this in the environment they are supposed to safe and cared for in?

The regional government’s ministry of education says it is taking the matter very seriously and intends to investigate. I hope so.