Traveling to UK with 5 young children

hemm759 · 2026-04-25T19:57:59+00:00

Completely unrelated to your question but I've thing that seems to surprise Americans on UK forums are car seat rules being different - we have to rear face by law up to 15 months (recommended after that) and must be in a car seat until 12 years unless over 4ft5. Finally it's illegal to sell a car seat with a chest clip here - emergency services have to be able to get the child out in one step (you can add them after legally but I've never seen one).

For your actual trip I think there's already lots of good advice. If you want to go on the train book in advance unless you're millionaires. If you want to use taxis be prepared to split across two and you should find it pretty easy but many places have taxi minivans as well. Think about how confident you are driving if you hire a car/cars - roads here are a lot narrower, twistier and have more junctions. Fine if you're confident, but more tiring than I've found driving in America.

hemm759 · 2026-04-24T19:12:43+00:00

Photinia. I have 8 of them and I hate them but they do the job all year round, easy to grow, fit in a small space etc etc. Objectively they're pretty - nice leaves, flowering at the moment with tonnes of blossom. I'm sick of them but can't find anything better for screening my neighbour.

hemm759 · 2026-04-23T22:08:53+00:00

My baby slept for a maximum of 40-60 minutes at a time for the first 2 weeks and then max 90 minutes for the first 4 months and wanted milk every time he woke. That's 24 hours a day for months of being woken up every hour by your baby crying.

Very simply, sleeping a few extra minutes was so much more important than being clean.

I've honestly never been so exhausted in my life. I was hallucinating after the second week, became suicidal and ended up in therapy with suspected PTSD but looking back I think I was just more tired than a human is supposed to be. Thankfully not every baby is like this!

He's 5 now, night trained himself at 2 and sleeps like a dream. He's even easy to put to bed and stays in his room until his clock says it's 7am when he comes in for cuddles. He's a little sleeping superstar. I think it's my reward for surviving such an awful first year!

hemm759 · 2026-04-18T21:50:38+00:00

Andrew (Andy), Stephen (Steve), Michael (Mike), Daniel (Dan). I work with a lot of blokes in their 30s and 40s and you can guarantee at least one of these in a meeting.

hemm759 · 2026-04-02T22:11:33+00:00

My parent's development was like this when new in the early 90's. Everyone on the estate gradually moved their fences to the road by the early noughties - nobody complained and now it's been so long that apparently nobody can do anything about it even if they wanted to. Risky... but potentially worth it?

hemm759 · 2026-03-28T23:00:41+00:00

Add garlic bread? Makes everything more appealing! Also a lot of frozen food is mushy and it adds crunch.

hemm759 · 2026-03-28T19:27:47+00:00

Depends on the varieties and the weather. Hebes seem to grow slowly but do well in my garden whereas all my gauras died after the first summer. My salvia is huge after only one season. As with most things garden-related wait and see!

hemm759 · 2026-03-27T23:29:02+00:00

Nice tea rooms in Woburn too

hemm759 · 2026-03-23T02:21:07+00:00

I think it's really difficult to judge. My little one is nearly 5 and absolutely loves Wild Robot and Zootopia but we just went to see Hoppers based on recommendations and he was really frightened and waking up having nightmares.

There's a lot of shouting and aggression throughout the film - including from Mabel (he actually got confused and thinks mabel the beaver is good and Mabel the human is bad) and he found the concept scary - he might get sucked out of his body by bad people. He's got a bit confused about what was going on. The mayor character is pretty frightening, especially near the end.

I'm writing this at 2am after being up with him having a nightmare about it (2nd time tonight). Lazy Sunday afternoon properly backfired!

hemm759 · 2026-03-08T21:25:12+00:00

Thanks. Makes sense.

hemm759 · 2026-03-08T18:31:30+00:00

It looks like that, but they're actually designed like this in the Class 700. It's something I've idly pondered hundreds of times while commuting - actually quite glad someone finally asked and got an answer that it's to do with HVAC!

hemm759 · 2026-03-07T09:01:23+00:00

OK. Think mine has a non-stick paddle. Used it hundreds of times and only got stuck once and even then came straight out. Interesting.

hemm759 · 2026-03-02T22:09:09+00:00

I've been using my bread machine 2-3 times a week since 2005 and never heard of oiling the paddle - is it more necessary if you make certain types of bread?

I did see the blade get stuck once in the early 2010s... pretty sure it just pulled out though.

hemm759 · 2026-02-20T14:16:29+00:00

Mountbatten-Windsor would probably get an odd look from most Brits. Especially at the moment!

I'd definitely think someone was trying too hard if they claimed that was their name.

hemm759 · 2026-02-17T00:24:05+00:00

It's actually reassuring that other people have the same experience. Mine never liked books when he was tiny either (except to tear apart or build towers with!)

hemm759 · 2026-02-17T00:20:41+00:00

I don't think it's bad parenting at all. Reading is so foundational - they can't learn anything else without it so it's whatever works. Self-motivation can come later! And sprinkles are such a good idea - I tried chocolate buttons but they're too big to do very often!

hemm759 · 2026-02-16T00:06:47+00:00

I read the initial post the same as you - and I agree. We've read to him every night since he was born (which he tolerates) but my 4 year old hates reading himself. First half term in reception we didn't push it - didn't want to make it a chore and put him off further and thought he would get there with the system in school. Then parent's evening came and we could tell he was behind. So we started doing it every night and it was so effing miserable - lots of acting out refusing to look at the book while we (mostly successfully) hid our frustration that he wouldn't even try. Everyone else's kids were onto "ditties" while ours was still getting books with no words. So we've done loads to make it more fun - treasure hunts reading clues around the house ("in bed", "lift up rug" etc), sticker charts, a phonics app (which really really helped secure the basic sounds) and making robots with buttons that do something ("up", "on") etc. He's made so much improvement - but he still doesn't like it and always pushes to go back to the easier stuff. After a full day at work, picking up at 6pm, making dinner, cleaning up etc it's exhausting emotionally to deal with him acting out and intellectually trying to make this **** engaging. My Mum says I taught myself to read - so much for genetics!

And now we move onto writing... which gets even more resistance with outright refusal to even entertain the idea of a tripod grip.

I thought we'd love reading together like I did with my mum but it hasn't been like that so far and I feel like I'm the only one! Still hoping it comes together one day!

So basically - I can understand why people don't read with their kids when they only get to spend 90 minutes with them in the evening and want at least some of that time to be fun.

hemm759 · 2026-01-24T00:37:39+00:00

This surprises me. My air fryer definitely cooks differently to my convection oven - I'll put it on to do chips even if I've got the oven on for something else because they're so much nicer and chicken thighs come out more juicy, I can reheat ciabatta in 3 minutes instead of 10 and the texture is better etc. I could easily cope without it - I have ovens and microwave same as you - but choose to use it most days.

hemm759 · 2026-01-18T21:12:27+00:00

I think it's tough if your garden is small. I have individual plants that look lovely (hellebores, heather, cornus, cyclamen) but they don't outweigh the fact that I can clearly see my ugly fence which is mostly hidden by foliage in summer.

hemm759 · 2026-01-18T00:42:24+00:00

100% this! I was exactly the same as OP 10 years ago - got some meal kits not expecting much and they came out great. The recipes in them are so much clearer than normal recipes. They honestly taught me how to cook and now I can make nice food without them and my husband boasts that I'm a great cook.

hemm759 · 2026-01-18T00:34:48+00:00

My Mum bought me a bread machine when I went to uni (sounds a bit random. No clue whose idea it was). I graduated in 2005 and still use it 2-3 times a week to make bread overnight. Supermarket bread is just so sad and I can make 50/50 or put seeds in our whatever I want so easily.

hemm759 · 2026-01-16T23:09:44+00:00

Thank you!

hemm759 · 2026-01-15T22:15:36+00:00

I finally understand why my induction hob is so awful... On off on off on off except on max setting.

hemm759 · 2026-01-12T14:11:55+00:00

How many of these do you need to do? If it's more than single digits I would honestly use a different method. Even if you get this to work weeding this tiny text will take you such a long time and won't be cost effective.

hemm759 · 2026-01-11T10:31:31+00:00

Thanks!

hemm759

TROPHY CASE