I answered this “25 things”  meme a while ago on Facebook, and thought it might be nice to break up the Deep Thoughts I’ve been posting about lately, because I am really quite shallow.

1.I am completely and profoundly addicted to coffee.

2. I desperately need a haircut. I am morphing into Cousin Itt (with Morticia grey streaks.)

3. I have to leave the room during tense moments in sport. Particularly if the Wallabies are playing, and the last World Cup nearly killed me (the football one, not the rugby one.) 90 minutes of tension at 5am is not good for me!

4. I call soccer ‘football’ because I am both a wanker and a wog.

5. When I was a kid I used to go with my Dad to watch KB United play. I used to take my teddy bear dressed in a team scarf and beanie.

6. I am a writer because I love words. Also because I can spend my working day in my pyjamas.

7. I know more about Star Wars than my kids, and I will yell at them if they ask me one more time if “this is the one with the ewoks?”

8. Jar Jar Binks made the Ewoks look like fucking Shaft.

9. That is a quote from Spaced. I love Simon Pegg.

10. I am not a geek. I swear.

11. OK – maybe I am – a little bit.

12. Apart from a year in Germany, I have lived my whole life in the zone of my archnemesis, the Sydney Funnel Web spider.They are found from Nowra (where I was born) to Newcastle (where I grew up and live now.) I swear they’re after me!

13. I sincerely believe that my extreme arachnophobia comes from watching the Dr Who “Planet of the Spiders” episode as a kid.

14. “People are Stupid” is my mantra. Seriously, once you accept this, life gets much easier.

15. Frangipanis used to be my favourite flower until everyone started sticking them on their damn cars.

16. I am a little bit jealous that our cats like my daughter more than me, but I have come to accept that she has the Kavorka for cats.

17. The dog likes me though.

18. The dog also likes random strangers and sniffing other dogs’ butts, so I am finding little solace in this fact.

19. My Arts degree means that I can answer all the brown questions in Trivial Pursuit. That was four years well spent, yes?

20. My obsession with pop culture means I am also quite good at pink questions, and having once worked in travel helps with the blue. Tony is good at Sport and Science. If we just learn some history and politics we’d be the perfect team.

21. Sometimes I think with our Mad Trivia Skillz, we should quit work and just do the pub trivia circuit. Except we both find it hard to focus on anything other than beer while in a pub.

22. I would rather have a good gin and tonic (Bombay Sapphire and Schweppes Tonic water) than any fancy cocktail.

23. I am a literary snob who not-so-secretly loves reading chick lit. This is because all the worthy literature is so damn depressing. Kind of like the Best Picture Nominees at the Oscars.

24. My kids are quite possibly the funniest, cleverest, sweetest children that ever lived. I know every mum thinks that, but it’s TRUE!

25. And some mornings I would still trade them in for a really good cup of coffee.

Last Friday night I attended a talk by Maggie Hamilton, author of What’s Happening to Our Girls, subtitled “Too Much Too Soon, how our kids are overstimulated, oversold and oversexed”. Basically the book covers the range of influences on our children, and the issues they are facing – particularly girls – from early marketing to infants through to low self esteem, “sexy” images and sexualisation, materialism, body image, pornography and the evils of cyberspace.

Today I talked to Carol Duncan on our local ABC 1233 in Newcastle about the book, the talk and how I personally feel about the issues our girls are facing -  accompanied by the wonderful Jayne Kearney (editor of Sunny Days magazine) and my mate Susan from Reading Upside Down. We all attended the talk and all have daughters not yet in their teens.

Both the book and the talk painted a pretty grim portrait about the world our girls are growing up in – complete with images from pro-anorexia sites, children modelling adult clothes, high heels for babies etc. It was shocking stuff. Lots of audience members gasped at times. And while I make jokes about women clutching their pearls, the images and information presented was disturbing. Rightfully so.

But are all our girls in trouble? I look around at my 11 year old daughter’s peers and I see kids not that dissimilar from myself at that age. They know all the words to the latest pop songs playing on the radio, they want to wear the latest fashions, they are smitten with cute boys in the playground but still would rather giggle with their girlfriends. Sure the scary wide world of web is out there now, but I like to think I’m pretty savvy when it comes to stuff that is online. I keep myself informed (and I am hugely curious) so I’ve seen or at least heard of most of the explicit and/or risky things that Maggie Hamilton mentioned in “What’s Happening to Our Girls?”

So here’s the thing – I don’t believe that the next six years or so are all doom and gloom for my daughter. I think I am doing a good job of showing her a taste of what real life is all about while still letting her be a child. I hope she will continue to come to me with her problems, and also continue to surround herself with other good people that she can turn to when Mum isn’t enough – because I wont always be enough.

I am also not blinkered enough to think that every girl is like my daughter. There will be girls who slip through the cracks, girls with low self-esteem who fall prey to some of the worst life experiences that are out there. Girls who have not been given the opportunity to be children, who see far too much of real life from far too young an age. So after Maggie’s talk and after my discussions with Carol, Susan and Jayne today I have been wondering what I can do to help them.

Barnados is one foundation that comes to mind.  So is Stewart House. Both can always use the support of the community at large to help them continue helping our children in need. I am going to do something positive to help and am calling on all my readers to look for ways to do the same.  Even just a small contribution has to make more of a difference than just pearl clutching and being afraid.

Tell me what you think – what are the biggest issues facing girls today, and can you think of any other positive ways that we can help?

On the weekend I went shopping with my daughter for some clothes. At almost 12, she has definite tastes. It has been a long time since I dressed for fashion rather than comfort, but I thought I was doing pretty well at pointing out colours and styles that are “in” this season. But then I found myself furiously shaking my head “No” at a cropped denim jacket that would have barely skimmed a bikini top. “Jackets are for warmth and I’m not paying for half of one!” I said, and then quickly looked around for my father. Surely those were his words, not mine!

You see, as much as I like to think I’m pretty cool (Are kids still using that word? “Cool”?) I do tend towards the fuddy-duddy at times.  Trouble is I can be a bit unpredictable with my preferences. For example I hate flat-brimmed caps, low hanging pants and “bling” on boys. But my son is one of only a few lads with long scruffy hair in a class of “short backs and sides”.  I turn up my nose at designer wear and brand names but gladly fork out for Globe skate shoes if it means my kids will wear black leather shoes to school without a fight.

We eat dinner as a family almost every night, with the table set and the television off. At the end of the meal, if we are still sitting and chatting, the kids need to ask “May I be excused” before they leave. Terribly old-fashioned, and yet I don’t care if they eat breakfast while hanging upside down on the lounge watching cartoons. On school mornings. While still in their pyjamas.

We have a mobile phone ban in place until Year 7, but umpty-two computers, a PS3, multiple iPods and Nintendo DSs. I refuse to get pay TV but with the endless hours of television series and movies we have on DVD, I can’t see how it would possibly change our viewing habits. Yes to The Simpsons, no to Home and Away. Neighbours at a pinch, but only if I can watch too and laugh at it – and none of them during dinner of course! No chewing gum! No bubble gum! No stupid sour liquid confectionery in a squirty bottle. Coke? Occasionally as a treat.  Chocolate? Hell yes! You can’t colour your hair until you are fifteen, but then you are allowed to dye it blue if you so desire. Lip gloss, sometimes. Lipstick NEVER!

So what do you think? Am I normal? What rules do you insist upon in your home? And which ones do you let slide?

With the advent of a national school curriculum in the news this week, I thought I’d gauge the opinion from my own personal expert on all things educational – my father, Papa Smurf. Papa Smurf was a high school maths teacher for umpteen years, and he has also been a parent for umpteen more, so he can see both sides of that particular coin. I was hoping to get some good old-fashioned smurf wisdom.

So for the record, Papa Smurf thinks that a national curriculum “makes sense. We are one country and people are becoming so much more mobile. Years ago people used to live in one street forever, now they move from street to street, town to town and state to state quite easily. It makes sense for a Year 10 student in one state to be able to simply pick up where they left off in Year 10 in another state.”

Sensible chap, that Papa Smurf. You can see why he’s the one they go to in the Smurf village.

So (I asked) why is this a big deal? Why are people getting worked up about it?

“Because they’re idiots.”

Ah. Of course.

Love ya, Dad!

I bought a new fridge on the weekend. Mostly because we needed more space, but also because I love the idea of a dedicated spare fridge in the garage for drinks. This will also come in handy when my husband brings home “Surprise Meat”.

There are two types of Surprise Meat. The first is that of meat trays won at the Friday Night Raffles, offered up like a peasant seeking indulgences from the Pope, in atonement for spending too long at the RSL after work.The second kind is  enormous bulk bags of dog bones that were on sale when he went to the butcher’s for something to throw on the BBQ.  Both kinds of Surprise Meat would be great value for money, except we have to call the kids in to eat a litre of icecream and 2 bags of grated cheese to fit it all in. Not anymore. “Straight to the garage!” I will bellow, thus taking care of both purchases and purchaser for some time.

Another delight of my new purchase has been the owner’s manual. Now I know what you’re thinking – “It’s a fridge! Plug it in. Turn it on.” But this new-fangled appliance has a special cooling area for meat, as well as some digital display bits and a water dispenser, so I wanted to make sure I was “doing it right”. No RTFM errors for this little black duck.

Of course I forgot to take a refresher course in manualese and techish. This manual seems to have taken a particularly convoluted course through one of the dodgier online translators.

Highlights include:

• When the door is opened, the warmer air can’t influence in the fresh zone. So you can store food more fresh in it.
• Inserted convertible room must be placed at its position. If door is opened, it can’t fill the role of it.
• …and oxidize under sunlight to decomposing malodor by ultraviolet.

Most puzzling were the instructions included with the water dispenser. Do not use anything other than water including. That’s it. Including what? Now I’m wondering what thing I could have possibly thought of that doesn’t fall under the “anything other than water” stipulation.Although I may have briefly considered how awesome it would be to have a chilled gin and tonic dispenser within reach at all times.

But my favourite part of the brochure is the warning box clarifying how to dispose of a fridge safely, so that children can’t become locked inside. Very important information, and the eye is drawn to it because the heading reads VERY DANGEROUS ATTRACTION! I want that on a t-shirt.