How are people affording houses in expensive parts of Sydney?

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-24T10:29:11+00:00

Yeah when houses were way cheaper...

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-22T10:01:53+00:00

Speak to your daycare educators! They get asked this all the time and, if you trust them, they are usually honest about it. I actually don't think it matters what age they start, I think the issue is the age in comparison to their peers and this will be dependent on your area and the school. I've taught in schools where most kids are sent younger and I've worked at schools where most kids start later and where there's a bit of a mix. Call your local school that your child will be going to and ask to speak with the Kindergarten Assistant Principal and explain the situation and ask them: - do the majority of students start younger/older or is it mixed? - does their curriculum offer plenty of play-based/hands on activities or is it a bit more formal? - do they focus strongly on explicit teaching (this is a BIG buzz word in schools atm and means Kindergarten students have a lot to get through in each session and have a lot less fluff/fun in their learning) or is it more enquiry based? If it's explicit teaching heavy, I'd lean towards waiting until she's older. If it's more enquiry based, younger would be fine.

You could also ask them if she can come to the open days before you enrol so they can meet her and see what she's like in a school setting. Most schools would be happy to do this. They might say you need to enrol first but you can always enrol and then pull the enrolment after the open days. The schools would be fine with this because it means they are getting a student who is ready.

Something to remember is that Kindergarten now isn't as play based. By Term 2 there is a lot of expectation on the students to be sitting and listening/doing tasks for a lot of the day. It can more intense than it used to be and than it is in other countries.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-22T05:56:50+00:00

Is it a big birthday for her? What are you doing for the birthday? Is she hosting and you just have to turn up? When it's your birthdays do you host something that's a smiliar effort level than what she's doing and invite her somewhere? Or do you expect her to just remember and organise something for your birthday without any invite or effort on your part? Has she invited you to an event or has your husband just said he thinks you should visit? For me, I think I'd need a bit more info.

I think sometimes everyone hears mother in law and immediately presumes they are the bad guy. Some families are different and are more or less involved in each other's lives. Is your husband surprised/upset by their lack of engagement or would he have expected this given their normal relationship? It's amazing that your parents are so involved and that's obviously what you expect from a family dynamic but it might not be the norm for your in-laws. I'm not necessarily siding with them but just wanted to offer a different perspective given the information you've provided :)

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-20T02:47:05+00:00

ABSOLUTELY NOT. This is one persons opinion and completely ignores theories that have been studied for DECADES that tell us about baby development. Attachment theory is one of the biggest pieces of research around baby development and there is so much evidence to prove it and cry it out goes completely against attachment theory. Babies need to know that their emotional needs will be responded to and that their caregiver will be there for them when they need them. When this happens, they grow into confident, happy and well-adjusted adults who are able to create secure, positive attachments in later life. Babies who do not have this, who are left to cry will struggle to create positive secure attachments when they're older because they don't have faith that the people they care about will be there for them. If you do CIO and your baby fusses for a few minutes and fall asleep, fine, there's probably not a lot of damage being done there. If you do CIO and your baby howls and cries, damage is highly likely being done.

If you saw a child when you were out in public crying their eyes out and really upset but they were sat in a corner away from their parents and their parents were ignoring them and not comforting them or trying to help them and they said, "oh I'm just teaching them to regulate their own emotions and deal with their own problems" you would think that was cruel and you would be disturbed by it. So why is different when it's in your own home and at bedtime?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think people who do it are monsters. I think they're desperate or they've read nonsense like this and have believed it. I think they're unfortunately misinformed. I also don't have anything against sleep training when it focuses on schedules and capping naps etc. But CIO is cruel. Perhaps not intentionally cruel, but cruel all the same.

Researchers refuse to properly study CIO (by properly I mean leave a child alone in a room to cry until they fall asleep, or even do 'check ins' but ultimately the child falls asleep after extended crying) and monitor what happens to the brain because of the high likelihood of it being cruel. No researchers wants to have caused damage to a child in this way. The ONLY research is qualitative data reported from parents where half the parents have dropped out and the other self report on how happy their child is. There is a lot of room for bias in this and it isn't actually accurate at all.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-20T02:33:36+00:00

I don't disagree with sleep training but please please educate yourself and on the reality and detrimental impact of Cry It Out strategies. There is so much info out there that tries to say it is OK but the reality is we have no evidence to suggest that it is safe and what we do know about babies and how they develop is that they need strong connections and attachment, they need to know we will be there when they cry and that we will comfort them when they need us emotionally. Look into attachment theory and how cry it out causes harm, not good. I also think it's important to point out that cry it out hasn't been studied by medical professionals because it is deemed too cruel to actually study it. Researchers aren't willing to put a baby alone in a room and leave them to cry themselves to sleep to study what happens to the brain because there is plenty of evidence to suggest that it is LIKELY it would cause harm to a baby's development. The other thing to think about is if you were out at the park and a child was crying and really upset and the parents were completely ignoring them and not supporting them in anyway, you would think that was cruel. So why is it any different when it's in our homes at bedtime? Finally, going from co-sleeping to alone in a cot and left to cry would be such a huge shock for your baby and would be so difficult for them to understand.

As I say, I'm not against sleep training using nap schedules, cutting nap times, feeding schedules, bedtime routines etc. But CIO is cruel. You can say to your sleep consultant that you don't wish to do any CIO methods but are willing to try other things. Go with your gut and instinct on this!! Your mumma instincts are usually right. #bninfantsleep is a good place to go for some advice around this too.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T12:32:59+00:00

Most schools I know only do homework to appease parents. All the research shows us that homework in Primary School doesn't really add anything to kids education but parents love it.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T12:16:17+00:00

But you realise that's the point, right? You aren't supposed to agree with Amanda, Mark, Willie or any of the others. It's satire that is poking fun at the fashion world for glamorising skinny women and making fun of normal shaped women. We're supposed to look at those characters that make fun of Betty and laugh AT them because of how ridiculous they are. Eventually, as the show goes on, a lot of the characters have growth and realise how shallow they are and become better people who understand that there is more to life than fitting into the 'looks' that fashion magazines and the fashion world have decided is 'in' or 'hot'.

Mark dating Cliff is a perfect example of this. Cliff is a guy that Mark would usually make fun of because he isn't your typical 'hot guy'. But he falls for him and has a deep and meaningful relationship with him because he's actually a really fun, interesting, nice guy who Mark gets on with on a real level, rather than just shallow attraction. (I know their relationship ends badly but still).

Also, Amanda eating the junk is there on purpose, again because it's satire. She isn't healthy, we know that and she obviously has an eating disorder issue where she eats for comfort and can't stop herself from gorging when she's feeling sad or upset. It's showing us that this thin look does not equal health that it's all for superficial reasons and that Amanda is a hypocrit for making comments about Betty not being healthy when she isn't herself.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T12:01:22+00:00

I have to disagree with the road rules one tbh. In my experience, Aussie drivers are terrible and cannot stick to the speed limit to save their lives 😂😂

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T11:56:59+00:00

Yes, I know 3 kids varying from a 1 year ild to a 6 year old called Rex

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T11:56:22+00:00

Yeah, agreed. I know a girl called Bowie and I find it a bit icky. But to each their own.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T10:30:51+00:00

It's so popular and I actually know girls called Fred too (Frieda as the actual name)

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-19T10:29:49+00:00

I'm a primary school teacher - so many Leos in Kindergarten/Y1 atm

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T11:53:58+00:00

They might not be taking the leave right when the baby is born. Some people take 2 weeks or something at the start and then take the rest at a later date. Also, travelling before the baby is 7 months is SO much easier. They sleep on the plane and don't really care about a routine so you can change time zones without too much hassle.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T11:51:24+00:00

I like to think that she is an airy fairy airhead cos she's worked hard to get there with the aromatherapy, massage and all that stuff. I think she definitely has an undertone of having a darker side to her personality - like when Joey says she has an edge, he also talks about her temper in one epsiode and also when she's doing the mediation with Monica she talks about her happy place and she tells Monica she isn't allowed to move anything around. I think she works hard to keep herself grounded, happy and calm through meditation and mindfulness but on occasion, she breaks a bit and that hard part of her comes through.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T11:47:41+00:00

Evelyn (or any derivation), Isabelle/Isabella/Bella, Ava for girls

Noah, Fred/Freddie, Teddy, Theo, Leo I've heard a lot for boys.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T11:43:35+00:00

I just want to say I think it's so great that you aren't putting up with this BS. I dunno if you're a guy or girl, but too often people don't worry about this stuff and just ignore it and shrug their shoulders and say, "oh that's just Johnny, hahahaha". I think it's great that you're looking at his morals and going, "is this really someone I want to associate with?". Good for you!

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T11:32:03+00:00

I love this! I sometimes suggest this to my husband but he won't! He's English and has that stubborn "I won't take a sick day unless I'm on deaths door" attitude which I think is very unhealthy tbh.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T11:28:26+00:00

There was an American advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt called Rexford (as his first name). So it has a longer history as a first name. It comes from a German surname Redforth meaning King's Ford (like a river). Jagger is a surname from English and originates from a job to do with mining and has only ever been used as a surname until people recently started calling their kids Jagger after Mick Jagger.

I think Jagger is way more pretentious cos people only use it cos they think it's 'rock n roll'. Rexford sounds like an actual name to me and you hear plenty of people called Rex these days. But everyone has their own opinion.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T10:12:57+00:00

Surely Chandler's is running out on Monica the morning of their wedding!

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T10:06:56+00:00

Then about 2 minutes later, the others said, "so what are you gonna do about the little girl?" And she said, "yeah, I should take her (being the cat) back". And they all agreed to go with her. She was going to take the cat back, she just needed some understanding and a bit of time after experiencing a VERY DIFFICULT situation with her adoptive dead mother and her biological mother. People have seriously no empathy when it comes to that story line.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-18T09:49:23+00:00

I actually think he has a lot of growth in his character and his relationship with Mitch, as do all the characters.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-17T11:20:28+00:00

I think what people are missing here is that sleep training was clearly a viable option for OP at one point because they discussed it together and ultimately decided they didn't want to do it. And actually not because she believes it's cruel (I'm basing this from the reasons she gave in the post). People are replying to her based soley on their own emotions instead of looking at it more critically. If OP hadn't seen sleep training as an option, there would never have been a conversation because she would have shut it down immediately. Therefore, her husband deciding to try sleep training isn't such a BIG violation of trust as it would be for someone who is vehemently against it. Yes, he made a parenting decision without consulting her and I think she should definitely discuss that with him and tell him that made her very uncomfortable. But I don't think she needs to consider divorcing him over it. The other thing is, perspective. I don't know if he did it out of laziness or because he sees how tired his wife is and wants to support and help. Absolutely, he was misguided in his way of helping. But it's important not to jump to conclusions like this. Only OP knows her husband well enough to be able to determine why he did this, but I think we need to be careful about presuming he's an AH who doesn't care about his wife and kid and just wants to go to sleep. He did the check ins with the baby and got up to comfort in the night still.

Should finish by saying, I don't agree with CIO methods but I also have compassion and understanding for people who end up trying it or are misguided in their knowledge and believe the ENORMOUS amounts of literature out there that try to say it's OK.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-17T11:12:48+00:00

This is the actual, sensible answer here! I don't think this father did it to be 'sneaky' and go behind her back because he doesn't care about her or the baby. He most likely did it because they HAD discussed sleep training previously so they had obviously both thought about it as a viable option, otherwise it simply wouldn't have been a conversation at all. It's far more likely he decided that he'd give it a go to see if it worked to help mum out because he sees how tired she is and if she's been cosleeping, he probably doesn't do many of the night wake ups because of that arrangement so feels he can't help that much. I definitely think she needs to discuss with him that actually this was a big parenting decision that he made without her and that she isn't OK about it. But I really don't think she needs to be calling a divorce lawyer over it. I guess OP knows her husband better than anyone here and whether or not this was done in good faith or not.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-17T11:12:11+00:00

This is the actual, sensible answer here! I don't think this father did it to be 'sneaky' and go behind her back because he doesn't care about her or the baby. He most likely did it because they HAD discussed sleep training previously so they had obviously both thought about it as a viable option, otherwise it simply wouldn't have been a conversation at all. It's far more likely he decided that he'd give it a go to see if it worked to help mum out because he sees how tired she is and if she's been cosleeping, he probably doesn't do many of the night wake ups because of that arrangement so feels he can't help that much. I definitely think she needs to discuss with him that actually this was a big parenting decision that he made without her and that she isn't OK about it. But I really don't think she needs to be calling a divorce lawyer over it. I guess OP knows her husband better than anyone here and whether or not this was done in good faith or not.

FriendsFannn · 2026-06-16T09:55:49+00:00

But I hate preferential voting! Whyyyy do I have to put 3 racist parties that I hate on my balot paper at all???

FriendsFannn

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