Kath85's Profile

Like others, I feel like the warmth and personality of the site is gone now. It's much less inspiring and I no longer look forward to stopping by as a special treat. BUT, I could get over that if only there was a more defined search. For example, we're working on our nursery and I wanted ideas for bookshelves specific to children's rooms. So, I scrolled through the "Family" channel, but found lots and lots of non-child-specific articles. Same with the bookshelf category, shelving category, and using the general search tool. In fact, each search brought up the same results and none of them were what I was looking for. I really, really miss child specific OhDeeDoh. It was a little community that was perfect for my phase of life, just like the main AT site was my go-to when we first set up house. Now everything is just so generic.

I remember that my parents didn't lock up cleaners (maybe not such a good idea if you clean with chemicals) or put away breakables or pad sharp corners. They were very specific about what would happen if we ever broke the rules and and we believed them because we'd
seen their punishment in action, um like the time we ripped a small part of mom's new wallpaper!

Of course, opting not to own expensive or priceless things is very freeing stress-wise anyway. But, for those who are concerned about very small children following rules, I work at an early learning center and even the one year olds know that they only get sippy cups at the food table, they never throw inside, chairs are for bottoms only, etc. Fear not, those little minds can grasp a whole lot more than we give them credit for if only we teach them to respect what is around them with the aforementioned discipline and consistency.

I haven't seen the nursery in question, but I did see the title of this post and clicked over to read immediately. I LOVE AT, but so many in the commenting community are truly insensitive/negative that I find myself staying away more than I would otherwise. It's not just here that I've seen it, but in almost every public forum. Why are we women so very hateful to each other? I agree that our society has become over-sensitive in many ways, but we can be honest without being blunt. Our rights to speak our minds should stop when they transgress someone else's right to be treated with respect. Just because we CAN say it doesn't mean we should. It takes a lot of guts and vulnerability to post something for public viewing and it's an enormous shame that those who do have to expect hurtful criticism. I'm speaking to myself too because I've said things on other forums thinking that I was just "being honest" and ended up hurting other people's feelings. Rather than defending ourselves in those situations, maybe we should become peacemakers and really work on seeing our comments from the other person's point of view.