WhyWaitForever - London - Children

Authors, books and comics

These links are meant to whet your appetite to curl up with a good book. Remember the best place to spend a wet morning or afternoon is at your local public libarary.

Of course there is no such thing as a good or a bad book though some can be too difficult or too scarey to finish. Use the "contact us" link above to let us know your most favourite and least favourite books and we may set up a new page with your comments.

Imagination toys

Some draw, some make models and some create elaborate worlds with action figures taking the parts of friends and foes, heroes and cowards. My best friend was a panda. He and I spent ages keeping the action men and dolls in line. It seems apt that the panda ended his days up the television aerial scaring pigeons off the roof.

Science and Science Games

It is natural to be curious about the world we live in and to explore and try and understand how everything works. Every generation things "it's too hard". Remember even the brightest minds had to start somewhere. WhyWaitForever - London - Sights - Museums contains links to the main London museums.

Fast food, themed and family restaurants

Most children at times like the familiarity of the type of food that the large restaurant chains offer. WhyWaitForever - London - Shops - Food - Restaurants contains links to family friendly restaurants.

London has many fine restaurants and eating places. Over the years these have become more sophisticated. Plain simple fare that is relished by children are less easy to find. If the menus appeal to adults ask the restaurant if they have a childrens menu or serve smaller dishes.

WhyWaitForever - London - Shops - Department Stores contains links to the main department stores that have restaurants and cafes to suite most tastes.

If the weather is good there is nothing finer than a picnic in the park near one of the playgrounds. WhyWaitForever - London - Shops - Food Supermarkets contains links to the main food supermarket chains.

Television Programmes

Most London children are enthralled by the television soap operas. WhyWaitForever - London - Television - Soaps contains links to the more famous ones.

Lifestyle and Music

Food (in the widest sense)

These sites sell the products usually if a fun way and sometimes with a few simple games.

Remember wasps like sweet things. I remember a trip to an amusment park when a number found their way into my can of sweet fizzy liquid without my knowledge. One long sip later was swiftly followed by some let us say very necessary but entirely immoderate behaviour. Key learning point. In hot countries always place a clean drinks mat on top of the can or glass to deter nasty creeping or flying crawlies entering on the quiet.

Hotels and Accommodation

London offers a wide range of hotel accommondation. Finding accommodation that suits children especially teenage children means additional work. It is always best to double check through a phone call or through an email that the accommodation is as expected. A family room or hotel suite can mean many things.

WhyWaitForever - London - Travel - Hotels contains links to a range of hotel groups.

Advice and Information

The Internet like all areas of life has dangers. It is the responsibility of each child, parent, teacher and those who work with children to keep repeating the message that safety is important. Children should avoid providing personal information about themselves over the Internet. If in any doubt don't give out ANY information at all and children it is always best to ask a trusted adult. It is better to be safe than sorry.

For play centres, pre-school and schools a good starting point is the local council. WhyWaitForever - London - Councils contains links to the central London local councils.

No person exists alone. Everyone at times has to turn to others for help. Sometimes persistence is necessary to make sure the right people are aware of the problem and the right people take action to resolve the problem.

Childhood

When I was little we were asked to "drink a pint of milk a day", to "go to school on an egg" and "a Mars bar helped us to work rest and play". We bought boxes of fruit from Covent Garden when it still was a fruit and vegetable market before its move to Nine Elms over Vauxhall Bridge. If the fruit was on the turn we were urged to eat up as much as we could. Fruits and vegetables had seasons. There was a longing for strawberries and for early tomatoes and early potatoes flown in from the Channel Islands.

We played football and cricket on the London back streets dodging the little traffic that occasionally found us out. The playgrounds encouraged us with climbing ropes, monkey bars and tough solid-xhtml.htmlhalt floors. Tiny stones were scrapped out of wounds with the pen knives we all carried.

We learnt to cross roads through streaming traffic. We could hop on and off buses at speed. We found it was best to position our feet facing forward and be ready to run as soon as we landed. The upper decks of buses were full of smoke and we had to contend with an unexpected slap from the bus conductor for misbehaviour.

The school system taught us to be tough. We were subject to corporal punishment (canning, slippering, slaps) and detentions (deprivation of liberty). The house and prefect system taught us to be competitive, to overcome any odds, to be stoical, to never complain, to intimidate and to bully. In the hot houses of the mainly single sex schools we were trained so that if required to we could still rule an empire leaving aside that the empire had ceased to exist many years before.

The world has changed. The needs and concerns of children are taken into account far more than they used to be. The world is still far from perfect.