I BET my house has been the same as lots of other borough households this week - we've been in full-scale, back-to-school mode.
In our Uxbridge home, this involves unpacking the kitchen cupboards to the dark and hidden depths where lunchboxes and drink bottles can be found lurking, hunting among the dust under the bed for school bags and PE kits, and a grumpy child, annoyed to be drawn away from his final holiday moments to model last term's uniform to see if - hope upon hope - anything actually still fits.
I'm not sure who hates this annual ritual more, me or Alex. He's not the one who has to wrestle with the iron-on name tapes that just won't seem to stick and, when they finally do attach themselves, are at a peculiar angle that look like his mum decided to tackle the naming pile after a few glasses of vino.
After my fifth wonky label and almost suffering a third degree burn, I gave up, and resorted to a permanent marker - there's no way Alex won't know which items are his, as there's a nice, big, bold 'RANSON' scribbled on everything.
My friend always has perfectly straight name labels on the uniform of her three well turned-out children.
After accusing her of using a ruler, a spirit level and super glue to get them on straight (she freely admits to being border-line OCD) she said she'd experimented with loads of different name tapes over the years and found the best ones around were from M&S.
It seems my money-saving idea of buying the cheapies from that well-known online auction site was the problem, as it's all about the glue, apparently.
Clever old M&S has even provided an easy way to order your labels by text message. You just text TAG followed by your child's name, your house number and your postcode to 65006, and you'll get 50 labels sent to you and £5 added to your mobile phone bill. Visit www.marksandspencer.com for more details. What a brilliantly simple idea! I've ordered mine ready for the next round of uniform labelling - or for when the marker pen fades.
DID you see the reports last week that parents are being urged to contact Britain's tourist attractions and complain if they feel the food on offer to their children isn't healthy enough?
A new campaign has been launched by the School Food Trust, which is encouraging mums and dads to put pressure on places such as theme parks and zoos to cut down on fatty foods.
When we had an annual pass for Legoland a few years ago, I was so cheesed off that you could only buy a fizzy drink with a kids' meal that I wrote a comment card out on every visit to complain.
I think a lot of other parents must have done this too, as eventually the drinks and food choices started to improve.
It seems parent power does work, but some of the other theme parks and venues haven't got the healthy eating message yet though.
So if you don't like what's on offer, make sure you fill in a comment card when you leave - they do get read, it seems.
Cathy recommends
**Hillingdon families have a choice of two great free outings this weekend. Saturday is the Sunshine magazine and Hillingdon Council Families' Information Service Party in the Park, in Fassnidge Park, Uxbridge, between 1.30pm and
4.30pm, for families with children aged up to 11. And for all ages, there is the Hayes End
Community Park Fun Day on Sunday, between 11am and 4pm.
Hope you can get along to one or both.
