Originally Posted by Dashie (Post 11452758)

Meh.

The hospitals I experienced with my babies were grotty, run down, tatty and cold (winter). Maternity/NICU units in Ontario. No personal experience in the UK, but all of the ones I visited were much better.

Our small city currently has a $300 million infrastructure deficit because it hasn't been kept on top of. The roads are a mess, the sewers are crumbling, and it's getting steadily worse every year. Also in Ontario.

There are lots of extra curricular activities for kids here, mainly put on by private organisations, the city, local library and art gallery, very little at the school except for school teams. They range from free to exorbitant and everything in between. Friends who lived here for a year have told us there was a lot more available in this regard for their children in the UK.

If I wanted to take my children out of school in the UK, then I could be fined. Here, they don't seem to care. My children would likely learn more in the way of critical thinking elsewhere, but we are here, so we'll have to try and teach them that ourselves.

On balance, it's fairly balanced I think. I'd rather move to New Zealand ;)

Originally Posted by Tirytory (Post 11452788)

I was going to add that activities in the UK are widespread and varied and don't cost an absolute fortune unlike here...

Originally Posted by Dashie (Post 11452986)

Agreed. Swimming locally here for our little family costs a small fortune.

Originally Posted by rivingtonpike (Post 11453004)

For swimming we pay $11 for a family of 4.

Originally Posted by Novocastrian (Post 11452692)

Thread swerve alert: I disagree with that.

Originally Posted by Novocastrian (Post 11452692)

While the teachers are on strike the pupils learn important life skills like organizing and acting in the community's best interest rather than their own, as well as realizing how inadequate their parents are at such stuff.

Originally Posted by Novocastrian (Post 11452692)

After the teachers are on strike, if they are successful in the strike goals, they will be more motivated and professionally secure, thus be better teachers than those who have been downtrodden and demoralized by governments.

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11453023)

I thought you might.



Surely they sit around watching TV and smoking dope. After a few weeks of that they come to like it and are hard to move off the couch.



If you say so. I think an extra few bucks an hour loses its impact after a while and that while the pupils won't recover from their weeks on the couch, the teachers will carry on as before. The system in BC, frequent strikes, long gaps in education, seems to be good for the teachers at the expense of the children and at the expense of the parents; if they take weeks off to deal with the failure of the teachers to teach, or at least to babysit, they're at risk of losing their jobs.

Note that I don't object to the teachers' ability to withdraw their labour but I think their doing so so often suggests that one should have one's children educated elsewhere; somewhere with a more effective teaching workforce.

Originally Posted by Tirytory (Post 11453016)

I meant a swimming club... I pay three times as much here for my son to swim at club level (it's about $400 a term)..actually that goes for soccer/football too.

Originally Posted by Novocastrian (Post 11453032)

As has often happened before, we'll agree to disagree with your permission.

BTW, I have half a thought to spend a couple of days in Guelph this week. Would you be around at all?

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11453034)

Lunch, by all means, anything else is severely limited by the need to tend to Charlie who's having a rouch patch.

Originally Posted by Novocastrian (Post 11453038)

Good. It's a bit uncertain atm, but lunch (with Cath) could certainly work.

Sorry to hear about Charlie. Been there.

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11453042)

Short notice is fine, I'm open to the idea of eating almost every day.

Originally Posted by rivingtonpike (Post 11453004)

For swimming we pay $11 for a family of 4.

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11453033)

There's something wrong there. I had some swimming children, the cost was next to nothing and made back in spades through lifeguarding. It was way cheaper than sailing, iced hockey, ballet, figure skating, even Scouts. In fact, even when the teachers were on strike and they sat with a bong watching MTV, they were more expensive than when they were swimming.

Originally Posted by Dashie (Post 11453053)

$24 at our local. Just a straight rectangular pool, nothing special.