Browsing: Africa

Bottled water attracts its fair share of bad press, maybe even more than its fair share.

One such example of this was when a government minister claimed that drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking;

“We have to make people think that it’s unfashionable just as we have with smoking. We need a similar campaign to convince people that this is wrong,”

said Tim Lang, the Government’s natural resources commissioner.

And all of this negativity surrounding bottled beverages seems to be having an impact with recent figures from market research company TNS suggesting that last year bottled water sales fell by 9% (this on the back of approx 10 years of year on year increases in sales).

However, is the bottled water industry really so bad?

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Comparing ourselves to other parents is a risky business. I waver between criticism of them eg. “Other parents let their kids stay up too late” – or inferred criticism of myself eg. “Other parents spend more time reading with their kids than we do.” Either way, it sucks.

Still, with Mother’s Day on the horizon, I will be affirmed in my role as Mum for one day, at least. The one day where having five children really pays off! Although to share the day with my daughter’s eleventh birthday is rather unfortunate, in my opinion.

Anyway, what is possibly even worse than comparing myself to other parents (and being compared to them by my kids is up there, too), is assuming that all parents think as we do. When I was called into school last Friday with a group of parents to discuss an incident of fighting, I was amazed when one man assertively informed the teacher that he was sure that all parents would join him in saying that they teach their children to

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